In Chandan Mitra’s death, Indian journalism has lost a treasure: Rakesh Srivastava
Guest Column: Farewell Mr. Mitra! You’re going to be missed by all your admirers, writes senior journalist Rakesh Srivastava
Chandan Mitra was an Oxford-educated scholar who initially believed that Marxism is the cure to everything that is wrong with the world. But as he personally witnessed the issues Indians at large faced, thanks to the socialist policies of the various governments at the Centre and in states, he turned anti-Marx.
My resolve against Marxism and conviction in nationalism got strengthened reading Mr Mitra’s opinion pieces in various newspapers when I was a student in JNU. Every morning those days, I would go to the newspaper stand in my hostel and look for opinion pieces written by my favourite journalists. Chandan Mitra was one of them. Others were Girilal Jain, M V Kamath, B G Veghese Arun Shourie and Swapan Dasgupta. Later, as Mr Mitra went on to own The Pioneer, my day would start with reading the editorials in his newspaper. Mr Mitra had an immense influence on my writing skills. Even though I never authored an article for The Pioneer, my ideas and opinions got a lot of publicity through my letters that often got a space in the ‘Letters to The Editor’ column in Mr Mitra’s newspaper.
One such letter, I remember I wrote making a sound case to change the name of ‘Aurangzeb Road’ in the national capital to ‘Dara Shikoh Road’ got a lot of traction as the newspaper subsequently published dozens of letters sent by its readers in support of the point I raised. I also personally received hundreds of letters by post, congratulating me for writing the piece and extending support to my idea. It’s a different matter that the government of the day didn’t take a note of it and it took a Modi government, years later, to drop the name of the communal bigot, that Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb was, from the road. The road was renamed as Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road.
I also remember the day I shared an ABVP platform in JNU with Chandan where I was invited to speak along with him, a Rajya Sabha member from BJP then. The meeting got delayed due to some unavoidable reasons and we got some spare time to share our ideas on various national issues that we did. Chandan left the meeting and asked me to meet him in his office which never happened as I got busy with my professional life in the private sector.
That was the last time I met Chandan.
And that's going to be the last time I met Chandan.
Mr. Chandan Mitra has left us forever.
In Mr. Mitra’s death, the Indian journalism has lost a treasure. He was a brilliant journalist. He groomed many a journalist who started their career from The Pioneer under his guidance and went on to make a name for themselves in the world of journalism.
Farewell Mr. Mitra ! You’re going to be missed by all your admirers. And I am one of them.
