Chandan exemplified daring and courage, as a star reporter, editor, owner — editor, in public life as a part time politician. My first interaction with him was in 1998 when he bought over The Pioneer, for one rupee from the Thapars who wanted to divest a loss making business and I had to look into the legalities on his behalf, in 1998.

He made a promise to himself and his employees that the paper would come out everyday without any break even though it was in dire financial straits and he not only made it good but actually expanded to multiple editions.

His ideological orientation towards the BJP lead a large number of his contemporaries in the English language press to ostracise him, but he didn’t flinch and The Pioneer became the first mainstream English daily to take stance towards the Right and provided a platform for all those with a similar stance. It requires courage to be the first person to do so and Chandan wasn’t left wanting.

To keep a loss making venture afloat without stopping publication for a single day required him to foray into the publications business which he did successfully, but always geared towards keeping The Pioneer afloat, his one and only priority.

Even though a BJP ticket at that time wasn’t a winning proposition from West Bengal he nevertheless plunged into the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Howrah which he fought with aplomb.

He didn’t mince his words and set new standards for courageous reporting, one of the first editors to be hauled up for contempt by the Supreme Court and having done Pioneer work for well over 15 years I can say with certainty that he would have notched up the largest number of defamation cases as an editor and mind you when The Pioneer was functioning on a perpetual financial knife edge.

Chandan can be summed up very well in Muhammad Ali’s words “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life”.