Aakar Patel

Some Lesser Known Facts About Aakar Patel

• Aakar Patel is an Indian journalist, activist, and author who is known for writing columns against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• After completing his studies, he started his journalism career when he joined the Asian Age as a trainee sub-editor. Later, he became the editor of the Mumbai edition of the Asian Age. After working at Asian Age, he worked with Deccan Chronicle and Dorling Kindersley.

• Later, he also worked as deputy editor of the Deccan Chronicle and as editor in chief of Mid Day Multimedia Ltd. In 2002, he co-authored the ‘Rights and Wrongs’ report on the 2002 Gujarat riots by the Editors Guild.

• After working as a journalist in Mumbai, he returned to Surat and started working as the editor-in-chief of a Gujarati newspaper Divya Bhasker.

• Aakar knows how to read and write in the Urdu language. In 2014, he translated the book ‘Why I Write’ by Saadat Hasan Manto into Hindi.

  

• He was appointed as the head of Amnesty International India in 2015. After he joined Amnesty International, the organization talked about Aakar and said,
  

  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.”

• After he joined Amnesty International India, he started writing columns against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi. He was also referred to as anti-national by the BJP followers. While he was working at Amnesty, the organization was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Home Ministry, and the Enforcement Directorate.

• In 2016, Amnesty International India was booked under section 124-A and was also called seditious by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the youth-wing of RSS. Amid the controversy, Aakar was considered to be a Muslim by many people as they claimed that his name was Aakar Ahmed Patel. ^[3]Live Mint

• In 2015, in an interview, he said that he followed Hinduism and came from a family of Krishna-worshipping Vaishnavites. ^[4]Live Mint

• In an interview, Aakar said that he learned about dissent in 2017 after he went to one of the protests against the death of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

• In 2021, he wrote a book, Our Hindu Rashtra, in which he compared India and Pakistan and also talked about media views. He wrote another book in the same year titled ‘Price of the Modi Years’ in which he talked about Modi’s re-election, the magnetism of Modi, and Modi’s management.

  

• Reportedly, he had a Muslim girlfriend when he was in college, and when he told his mother about his girlfriend, his mother threatened him to hang herself. ^[5]The Print

• He is an avid dog lover and often posts pictures of them on social media.

  

• He is often spotted drinking and smoking on various occasions.