Baleshwar Agrawal : A Tribute
I was a slip of boy in early 1960s when I came into contact with Baleshwar Agrawal. He had launched Hindistan Samachar, a Hindi News Agency from Patna and I was then in my school final. My sheer interest in journalism drove me to Baleshwarji who was good enough to give me a job of reporter for Rs. 25/- per month. I was assigned to cover Crime and University. This is how I became a journalist. Majority of the leading journalists in Hindi have or had worked at one point of time under Balesharji.
It was around 8 in the morning of Friday, May 24, 2013 when I received a call from Sushma Agrawal, granddaughter of Baleshwarji. I was in Dehradun. Baleshariji was no more. He was 92. The end came last night. I am on my way to Delhi to pay my tribute to the man who taught me journalism.
There was something in him about journalism that drove him to quit a lucrative job of chief engineer in Arrah-Sasaram Light Railway owned by the Dalmias in early 1950s. He was an engineer by profession and graduated from Benaras Hindu University. At that point of time, he strongly felt the need to launch a news service in Hindi since he thought that Hindi journalism was not being served well. This is how he started Hindustan Samachar.mee
The nation was placed under Emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Congress government besides enforcing censorship on news decided to merge all news agencies into one. The leading news agencies like PTI, UNI and Hindustasn Samachar were merged to become Samachar. Balesharji latter decided to keep away from the corridors of power during the emergency.
I remember an incident when Balesharji as head of Hindustan Samachar helped me in initiating a CBI investigation into the functioning of a religious sect against which I had written series of articles in The Searchlight and Pradeep, the two leading dailies published from Patna.
Later, Baleshwarji started an organization called Indian Council for International Cooperation in 1978 to serve the interests of Non-Resident-Indians living abroad. He got me associated with that organization.
I pay my rich tribute to Balesharji and my sincere condolences to his family and friends.
~ R.K Sinha
