Mark Tully attacked in novel

But his reputation has come under extraordinary attack in a thinly-disguised novel which portrays him as a heartless philanderer and supporter of fanatics.

Hindutva Sex and Adventure, written by an unidentified author and released by one of India's leading publishers, centres on a veteran foreign correspondent clearly identifiable as Tully, who was knighted for his journalism in 2002.

The plot includes an incident in which Luyt seduces a young Indian journalist, has 'tantric' sex with her but then but then suggests she has an abortion after becoming pregnant.

He also becomes a supporter of Hindutva, the Hindu fundamentalist philosophy which provoked communal riots throughout India in the early 1990s in which several thousand people were killed.

Full report here Telegraph