Remembering Nikhil Chakravartty

D R Goyal IN the death of Nikhil Chakravartty the country has suffered an incalculable loss. All the more because he has left behind only a part of himself in the form of the weekly Mainstream, a news and feature agency (India Press Agency) and fond memories of the journalist fraternity that flourished in the last half century, , Drawn out of the comfortable perch in Calcutta' s Presidency College into the hectic life of a reporter for Communist Party journals, he rose to be acclaimed as the doyen of the nation's journalist fraternity. Appointment as chairman of Prasar Bharti was only a recognition of his services to the cause of media freedom in the cause of democracy and human tights. It was hardly an honour conferred upon him but the decision was the best way a government could think of to lend credibility to the intention of making media autonomous.