New Delhi: After Gulzar Dehlvi, another light in Delhi has gone out with the passing of the Urdu newspaper Editor and former Congress Member of Parliament Vishwa Mohan Bandhu Gupta. He died on Monday at the age of 94.
He was perhaps the last of the senior editors of a Urdu newspaper that catered to all the communities—Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in Delhi, Punjab and surrounding areas.
Columnist Masoom Muradabadi stated, “He was a shining symbol of our Ganga-Jamuni culture and the values of Delhi.”
Gupta was the eldest son of Congress leader Lal Deshbandu Gupta—a former Chairman of Tej-Bandhu group of media enterprises. The latter was also the Editor-in-Chief of the group’s publications including The Daily Tej, DIWANA magazine, The Weekly Sun, The North-East Sun, Treasure monthly and Flash.
Plus, Gupta was one of the founding members of the Press Club as well. Small and medium newspapers received a boost during his storied career as a media baron.
Not only did he work to uphold values of secularism and peace in the country but in the overall South Asia region as well. In July 2018, he offered to fly with Pakistani Prime Minster on a ‘Peace Balloon’ from Lahore to Amritsar. An avid ballooner, he moved from place to place via flamboyant hot air balloon shows.
He presided over many Congress election campaigns as a seasoned officeholder in the party’s Delhi unit. “Every New Year, he used to invite renowned poets to his palatial bungalow in the city’s Tolstoy Marg area.”
Gupta was cremated on Lodhi Grounds with only 20 people present owing to prevalent social distancing norms.