<i>Friend with a pen in India</i>

Sukharanjan Dasgupta as chief correspondent of Anandabazar Patrika took up his pen to drum up supports from Indian government and citizens for Bangladeshi freedom fighters and refugees in 1971.
Now, 41 years after the liberation, he wants to pick up his pen once again for the advancement of Bangladesh.
“I want to work for the country in whatever way I can afford over the rest of my life,” he told The Daily Star a day before he was awarded Friends of Liberation War Honour by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday.
He feels proud as Dhaka recognised his “little” contribution made four decades ago, he added.
In 1971, Sukharanjan managed to make all his colleagues at the Anandabazar Patrika office in Kolkata to donate one day's salary for wounded refugees sheltered in India.
He thus collected 68,000 Indian rupees and handed it over to the then prime minister of Bangladesh, Tajuddin Ahmad, sometime in April-May.
“I was shocked at the conditions of refugees pouring in through the borders. I saw most of them are seriously wounded and suffering from food and medicine crisis.”
He wrote a number of stories, seeking Indian aids for refugees.
“I was assigned to cover the Liberation War. I reported on the war by gathering information from freedom fighters inside Bogra, Kushtia, Dinajpur, Khulna and other places in Bangladesh,” he said.
Talking to this correspondent at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital on Friday, the veteran journalist said he established the name of Mujibnagar through datelines in his reports.
“On the oath-taking of the Mujibnagar government in exile, every journalist mentioned Meherpur on the datelines of their reports. But I used Mujibnagar,” he said.
“The next day, Tajuddin Ahmad told me that the Pakistani army will bomb Mujibnagar as its name has been made public.”
Sukharanjan, born in a village called Ranomoti in Barisal, helped Bangladesh also in different other ways.
“I had close contacts with prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad and others. One day, he said the freedom fighters need bidi [cheap cigarettes]. I telephoned one of my friends who used to work at the top position of a tobacco company. She sent three-truck bidi and cigarettes for the freedom fighters. I took those to Tajuddin,” said the senior newsman.
“Also, I managed doctors for the injured.”
He believes the war crimes trial should have been held 41 years ago. “The trial of the war criminals must be held. This is my position as a friend.”
The friend of Bangladesh said he dreams the people of this country will always live in a secular and democratic society, a goal which he and freedom fighters pursued in 1971.