Eminent journalist Govind Thukral dies at 79

Chandigarh

Eminent journalist Gobind Thukral passed away after prolonged illness at Panchkula, on Sunday. He was 79.

Thukral is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. He was suffering from cancer.

The cremation will be take place on September 30 at 4 pm, at electric crematorium, Sector 25, Chandigarh.

Thukral, whose journalistic career spanned over three-and-a-half decades, retired as Chief of Bureau with The Tribune around two decades back.

Express, The Financial Express, India Today and The Hindustan Times. While based in Chandigarh he not only covered the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir but also reported from the troubled spots of the North-East and Bihar.

He extensively wrote on Indian Diaspora from Canada, America, Malaysia and Singapore. His extensive writings on rural India won him the prestigious ‘Statesman Rural Reporting Award’ in the very year of its inception for reports on the migrant farm workers in Punjab in late 1970s. Thukral got fellowship by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, where his research ‘Troubled Reflections: Reporting Violence’ was published by the institute. He was one of the founding members of the Chandigarh Press Club and later served as its president also.

Though his main interest was in political economy, yet Thukral covered Punjab extensively at the height of militancy in 1980s and 1990s.

After retirement he used to write regularly for Punjabi media and The Tribune. Before falling ill with cancer, he was working on a book on media. His son Naveen Thukral is a senior journalist with Reuters, based in Singapore.

Thukral was born in West Punjab and his family migrated to Bassi during the Partition. Before taking to journalism, he was a college teacher for a few years.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh condoled the death of Thukral. Describing him as one of north India’s leading journalists, Amarinder said he had contributed immensely to both English vernacular media, particularly during the dark period of militancy, on which he reported fearlessly.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal, former Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, Indian Journalists Union’s Amar Nath, Chandigarh Press Club and Punjab and Chandigarh Union of Journalists also condoled the death of Thukral and hailed him as a pro-people journalist.
Before that he worked with various newspapers, including The Indian