Veteran journalist M.V. Kamath passed away in Manipal, Karnataka, on Thursday after a brief illness. He was 93.

“He died of a cardiac arrest at 7.30 a.m.,” said M. Dayananda, Medical Superintendent and COO of Kasturba Hospital. The funeral was held at the Beedinagudde crematorium in Udupi in the evening.

Mr. Kamath was known for his integrity as a journalist and his courage to call a spade a spade. But mainly, he did not allow his political views to colour his reportage of many epoch-making events across the globe. He worked as the Washington correspondent for The Times of India during 1969-78 and as Editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India from 1978 to 1981. He also served as foreign correspondent in Bonn and Paris.

After the BJP-led NDA came to power in 1998 under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr. Kamath was named Chairman of the Prasar Bharati Board and subsequently in 2004 was conferred Padma Bhushan. In 2009, Mr. Kamath co-authored a book with Kalindi Randeri titled ‘Narendra Modi: The Architect of a Modern State’, at a time when the Gujarat Chief Minister was fighting off the political stigma of the 2002 riots. When Mr. Modi rose to take centre stage in national politics, a newer version of the book came out as ‘The Man of the Moment: Narendra Modi.’

A prolific writer, Kamath has some 50 odd books to his credit besides his regular columns which he continued to write till the last. His book ‘À Reporter At Large’, that reminisces on his experiences as a journalist in some of the most influential world capitals, is a must read for any aspiring journalist as well as writer.