Columnist Aakar Patel to head Amnesty International India

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Journalist and writer, Aakar Patel, has joined international human rights organization, Amnesty International as its new Executive Director for India and will head Indian operations. A columnist and writer, Aakar Patel has worked with many leading media organisations in the country. He has worked as Deputy Editor of the Deccan Chronicle and as Editor in Chief of Mid Day Multimedia Ltd. A Bloomberg profile says, "Patel began at his family-owned textile business in Surat. He switched to journalism, joining the Asian Age as trainee sub-editor. In a year, he was elevated to Editor of the Mumbai edition. He moved to the Deccan Chronicle and thereafter to Dorling Kindersley." Courtesy Mid-Day.com He has co-authored 'Rights and Wrongs', a report on the 2002 Gujarat riots. "We are delighted that Aakar Patel will be joining us. Amnesty International India is one of the movement's three national offices, set up to increase our impact in countries with growing global influence which continue to face human rights challenges. Aakar's commitment to human rights in his journalism and writing positions him perfectly to take on this important role," said Minar Pimple, Senior Director of Global Operations at Amnesty International. Aakar Patel really needs no introduction, and is no stranger to controversy either. He writes regularly for Mint Lounge and several other media outlets. He is also the author of Why I Write: Essays by Saadat Hasan Manto. He has a defunct Twitter account which he has abandoned because he finds social media “off-putting and not useful”. Reading, for him, is a serious affair. When he is not writing about Modi in his columns, he gives us much gyaan on how south India’s urban culture is more intellectual because it is dominated by Brahmins. He has also informed of his borderline hatred for Gujarati men, baniyas and India’s erstwhile royals. For some more fun, we direct you to Anand Ranganathan’s long but hilarious take on Aakar. Amnesty International Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people campaigning to protect human rights founded in 1961 by London barrister Peter Benenson, after a group of students in Portugal were jailed for raising a toast to freedom.

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