वरिष्ठ पत्रकार गिरीश निकम की हार्ट अटैक से मौत

वरिष्ठ पत्रकार गिरीश निकम की हार्ट अटैक से आज शाम मौत हो गयी। वे राज्यसभा टीवी के लिए अपने लोकप्रिय शो ‘बिग पिक्चर’ की रिकॉर्डिंग करने के बाद स्टूडियो से बाहर निकले थे। उसी दौरान उन्हें दिल का दौरा पड़ा। उन्हें तत्काल अस्पताल ले जाया गया लेकिन बचाया नहीं जा सका।  राज्यसभा टीवी के सीईओ और एडिटर इन चीफ गुरदीप सिंह सप्पल ने गिरीश निकम को श्रद्धांजलि देते हुए फेसबुक पर एक पोस्ट का प्रकाशन किया है जो इस प्रकार है…

Bye Bye Girish 

-Gurdeep Singh Sappal-

It is with deep sorrow I announce that our esteemed colleague Girish Nikam is no more with us. Today evening, after recording his show ‘Big Picture’, he suffered a cardiac attack. He was immediately rushed to hospital from the studio, but he decided to say the final bye to all of us.

Girish was an integral part of RSTV, a voice of sobriety, rationale and compassion in the debates that he conducted, which became the hallmark of the channel.

He was one of the first few to join RSTV. He had never anchored before. He didn’t fit the caricature of TV anchors that Indian television has created and promoted. But he was requested to anchor because we wanted to establish that television debates can also be about content and not just style. 

Girish’s long experience in journalism qualified him for the experiment. And how he proved ! Redefining not just the content and conduct of TV debates, but also developing a flair and style that has a huge fan following today.

Girish is gone, but he decided to go in style, right from studio to an eternal journey. He always wanted to live active till his last breathe and like everything else in his life, achieved this too as per his wish and on his terms!

Rajya Sabha Television will miss him. It will be difficult for anyone to emulate him in his show ‘The Big Picture’. But he has left behind a template for serious television debates, which would certainly guide future anchors of RSTV.

I express my grief and sense of loss, which everyone in my channel shares with me. Because, besides everything else, Girish was a great human being, full of compassion, comradarie and warmth. 

Bye bye to a colleague, who was a ‘non-hypocrite’ to the extent of perfection.