Sonia Gandhi condoles Dileep Padgaonkar's demise

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday condoled the demise of veteran journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, saying the void created by his death will be hard to fulfill for he espoused a brand of mature, balanced and unwavering journalism that's gradually hard to find.

Remembering him as an intellectual, historian and thinker, Gandhi prayed for eternal peace for the departed soul and also expressed her solidarity with family and friends of Padgaonkar in this hour of grief.

Padgaonkar passed away in Pune earlier in the day. He was 72 years old.

The veteran journalist was part of a three-member interlocutors' team that was chosen by the Centre in 2010 to hold a dialogue with all sections of the people in Jammu and Kashmir.

He began his career in journalism at the age of 24 and joined Times of India as its Paris correspondent after receiving a doctorate in humanities from the Sorbonne in June 1968.

He served as its editor for six years from 1988. From 1978 to 1986, he worked with UNESCO in Bangkok and Paris.