Tejinder Singh, Washington DC based veteran White House correspondent, founder-editor of India America Today passed away in late May. A Memorial to celebrate his life was held at the National Press Club in DC on July 12 with many high profile people. Ravi and Ranju Batra spoke at the Memorial.
Remarks by Ravi Batra
Thank you, Poonam, and you have our deepest condolences on the loss of Tejinder Singh.
Ranju and I were shocked to our core to learn that dear Tejinder was no more. That he was a firebrand of a journalist is visible from his long public record of service as Editor-in-Chief of India America Today. He was a John Wayne kind of reporter, with true grit. He was a proud and active member of the National Press Club.
That we are here today paying tribute to Tejinder Singh in the National Press Club, the Cathedral for Free Press, with President Lisa Matthews participating, along with Mesfin Mekonen, Paris Huang, Lalit Jha, my “better half” – a term Tejinder enjoyed using often – Ranju, the ever graceful Marie Harf, A/S Nisha Biswal, the gentlemanly John Kirby, and each of you, including, as a matter of personal privilege, our miracle daughter Angela – a bond Tejinder rejoiced and celebrated – speaks volumes both of how vital Press Freedoms are to Lincoln’s Gettysburg recipe for democracy, and Tejinder Singh’s dedication to journalism and to help form a more perfect nation, and world.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Tejinder was a throwback to a mold of journalist-giants whose personal sense of righteousness was their North Star – superbly stated by Gene Kelly, as E. K. Hornbeck, in the legendary movie “Inherit the Wind” that the role of a journalist is: “to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”
We join in John Kirby’s observation that Tejinder was a gentleman. Tejinder saw the First Amendment as Holy as I do. We talked often. He wanted more, much more of me and Ranju in his professional life, and with the National Press Club. I’m sad I didn’t accept his multi-year desire, as we would have rocked and rolled – from issues national and geopolitical – driven to do right, or to paraphrase my late great friend and supporter, the legendary District Attorney Bob Morgenthau: Fly straight, without fear or favor.
I would often say to Tejinder, that both the Press and the Law seek the truth and abhor a lie – let alone, Big Lies. And that makes us relatives. Just like Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly were inseparable in “Inherit the wind.” As my friend, the late great NY investigative journalist Wayne Barrett would say to me, the battle between good and evil is perpetual. Our nation is convulsing from within, as exhibited by the Insurrection on January 6th and promoters of Lies for self-gain and self-importance, none more tragic than the resulting fall of America’s mayor Rudy Giuliani for his “trial by combat.” January 6th troubled Tejinder greatly, and which I view as more injurious to our Republic than 9/11.
Our exceptional Founders, less imperfect given our commonplace arrogance today, bequeathed to us the First Amendment as a robust check on power – and Tejinder used it, and in so doing, heeded Ben Franklin’s warning: “It’s a republic madam, if you can keep it.” Tejinder’s life was well spent in keeping our Republic robust and vibrant, willing to look at ourselves honestly and always with the desire to help “form a more perfect union.”
I can cite many examples when things might trouble Tejinder and he would call me – and I would act to remedy the problem. Perhaps, just two examples of last year when I and my family were suffering from Covid-19 and I was at death’s door. Two events around that time bothered Tejinder: worshippers in a Gurudwara in Kabul being slaughtered by ISIS, and soon thereafter, the killers of Daniel Pearl were released in Pakistan.
As for Kabul, aware of the global heartburn after Christchurch slaughter of innocent worshipers at two Mosques and the resulting billionaire’s family becoming suicide bombers in Sri Lanka to blow up Holy Easter, I felt there needed to be a tempered response – as this was an attack by a terror organization rather than a demented individual facebooking his New Zealand slaughter for celebrity. So, I wrote an open letter to then-President Trump asking for a response worthy of terror-eradication. Innocent Sikhs are as valuable as innocent Muslims. But as to Daniel Pearl, I knew that the State Department had tried, and still the killers who had video-taped the ghastly killing – as Daniel was Jewish – were released. I then reached out to my friend in London, who is the number one supporter of Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan, a nation founded by a lawyer-gentleman Mohammed Ali Jinnah. I argued that Pakistan as a civilized nation cannot tolerate this, and after the Holocaust, we are all Jewish.
I’m delighted to say that Imran Khan filed an appeal and the Killers were re-arrested. The subsequent incomprehensible acquittal by Pakistan’s Supreme Court left us only with an extradition option – and since this was now an inter-governmental decision, I told Tejinder I will only re-engage if Secretary Blinken asked me to. I share this as a tribute to Tejinder – for it was his being upset by these two events that real justice was sought and in fact enhanced.
Two of my defining heroes are Thomas Becket, who chose God over King, and Sir Edmund Burke, who provides a moral imperative in our lives: “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for some men to do nothing.” My final tribute to Tejinder Singh is that he honored in full measure Sir Edmund Burke’s call to moral righteousness. Tejinder was a good man, who stood tall and fought evil. May his memory be forever Blessed.
So, yes, Tejinder comforted the afflicted, and afflicted the comfortable. I will miss my friend, and his random calls. We will miss Tejinder’s good deeds, his sharing in friendship of human trials and tribulations, and his always reaching for social and political justice, using journalism’s sunshine disinfectant as the pull and push for justice.
Rest In Peace my friend.
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.
Eminent Attorney Ravi Batra is Chair, National Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs
Remarks by Ranju Batra
Thank you, Poonam.
And thank you for making this memorial possible.
We are all here to give tribute to a dear friend and a great journalist. I’m glad we could all come together to celebrate his life.
I want to share with you how Tejinder Singh, as editor-in-chief of India America Today, supported me.
Today, nearly 5 years after successfully completing my 7-years long personal journey to get United States Postal Service to issue a Diwali Stamp in 2016, it’s easy to forget that the dream to get one was nearly impossible. As many before me had tried for over 20 years and given up.
During those long years full of hope and despair, when there was “no light at the end of the tunnel,” the media supported me in a big way, as it was a cause dear to everyone’s heart in the US, and over a billion people across the world. Tejinder Singh – a Greek Orthodox – encouraged me as a brother, and was constantly caring, kind and supportive when my Dream seemed impossible – even with support from Congress-members Carolyn Maloney, along with Grace Meng, Eliot Engel and Greg Meeks to name a few.
When the USPS finally agreed to issue the Diwali Stamp, Tejinder was so excited that he came up to New York for the Dedication of the immortal Forever Diwali Stamp on October 5th, 2016. He had an additional reason for pride, I had personally sold 170,000 stamps for Day One making Diwali stamp the bestseller ever in the USPS’s 200+ years history.
Two months later, when 24 nations at the UN honored my journey, Tejinder Singh was there. When out of that UN event, based upon remarks made by a Deputy Foreign Minister, the Diwali Foundation USA was formed in 2017 and it bestows the “Power of One” Awards for exceptional world class diplomats that honor the ideals of the U.N. Charter enhancing peace & security. And Tejinder Singh was there.
Today, we are in Washington D.C., home of Tejinder Singh’s India America Today, at the National Press Club, to pay tribute to him, and his life as a journalist, for he helped make dreams come true. He supported and contributed to causes, with joy and passion. With deep sadness I say we will all miss him.
Ranju Batra is Chair, Diwali Foundation USA
