Arun Shourie

Arun Shourie (Punjabi: ਅਰੁਣ ਸ਼ੌਰੀ; born 2 November 1941) is an Indian economist, investigative journalist, newspaper editor, author and politician. He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry (1998–2004). During the Emergency period, through his investigative reporting, he wrote extensively against the Indira Gandhi Government, exposing censorship, corruption and human rights violations; later when Ramnath Goenka made him the editor of The Indian Express he wrote extensively exposing corruption, this won him the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982, and the Padma Bhushan in 1990. He was awarded the prestigious International Editor of the Year Award in 1982, given by World Press Review, New York.

Popularly perceived as one of the main Hindu nationalist intellectuals during the 90s and early 2000s, for instance writing controversial works on Islam and Christianity apart from attacks on left-wing ideologues, he considers himself skeptical of religions, especially the concept of the organised religion.