Padmanand Jha, affectionately called Paddy by his friends and colleagues in journalism, passed away today morning in Goa, Charu Soni inforned in a facebook post .One of the seasoned leftist political journalist ,Paddy had met with an accident about 20 years ago that left him paralysed. However , even when bed ridden , his liking of Hindi film songs didn’t cease.
I had last met him about 40 years ago in front of Link House where English daily Patriot and Link magazine was published. I had gone there to deliver press release of the Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU ) Students Union. He had insisted to share a cup
of tea with me and late journalist Abhay Sinha , a JNU alumni who was then working occasionally for the Patriot .
Feel very soory i don’t have his photo readily available. He was on Facebook abd Twitter also.i , however , couldn’t find his any recent post.
Paddy had worked both for the print media and television channel.He was instrumental in setting up the political bureau of the New Delhi Television (NDTV ) when the company started. He had also worked with legendary late journalist Vinod Mehta when he launched a magazine Outlook.
Very senior journalist and Chief Editor of India first online daily news paper , The Citizen , Seema Mustafa said in a message : Very very sad news. Of course he was an excellent journalist. Obituary messages were pouring in when this piece was written.