Rana Ayyub was born. Her father, Mohammad Ayyub Waqif, was a prominent member of the progressive writer‘s movement and a writer for Blitz, a Mumbai-based publication. The family moved to the Muslim-dominated suburb of Deonar, where Rana grew up, after the 1992–93 disturbances in the capital. Ayyub is a devout Muslim who believes in the Prophet Muhammad.
Tehelka, a Delhi-based investigative and political news magazine, was Rana’s employer. Rana has previously criticised the BJP and Narendra Modi in particular. According to Rana Ayyub, a paper she wrote was essential in putting Amit Shah, a close friend of Narendra Modi, in jail for several months in 2010.
Rana worked as an investigative journalist for Tehelka, and her main task was to carry out the sting operation that became the basis for her book Gujarat Files. Tehelka’s management refused to print any storey written by Rana or based on the facts she acquired at the end of the sting operation. For several months after that, Rana worked with Tehelka.
As a Tehelka investigative journalist, Rana Ayyub embarked on a mission to execute a long-term sting operation aimed at catching Gujarati politicians and government officials and forcing them to expose any possible cover-ups surrounding the 2002 riots. Rana pretended to be Maithili Tyagi, an American Film Institute filmmaker and proceeded to befriend her targets. Tehelka paid her a regular monthly salary while she was in disguise for almost ten months. However, Tehelka’s management thought that the recordings she had made throughout the months provided no fresh or sensational material after the experiment.
Rana Ayyub will receive the McGill Medal for journalistic bravery in February 2020. On the 22nd of April, she received the award at Grady. On Wednesday, April 22nd, the medal ceremony took held in Grady College’s Peyton Anderson Forum.
