The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at MUJ chapter.
Mukesh Chandrakar was born in a remote village of Basuguda, Chhattisgarh. He was a man known for his fierce bravery and resilience when it came to ground reporting. He had his own independent news channel on YouTube, Bastar Junction. He was a man with a mission to help people in understanding the lives of people in remote areas of Bastar. He started his journalism journey in 2013 by working at NDTV. His passion for the job led him to places in Bastar which you and I couldn’t even dream of visiting. However, this fearless journalist was murdered on 1st January 2025.
The journalist was found in a septic tank in the compound owned by a contractor on whom he had made a story on corruption in the state. The said contractor has been arrested and put under judicial custody as of now and is waiting for a trial. Chandarkar was not just a journalist but a beacon of hope for the villagers in Bastar. His stories highlighted what the mainstream media houses usually overlooked. The stories provided a new view of Bastar that many of us had never seen before. A Bastar that was not just about Maoist rebels but also about its people.
The achievements of Chandrakar just didn’t end with his fierce reporting skills but, of his connections with people of Bastar. He had a sense of comradeship with a place that has been foreign for its own people for the longest of time. He was also a prominent figure in the release of a CRPF trooper, from Maoists in Bastar. He was an enigma of his own, with his witty videos and melodramatic comebacks which define his style of journalism.
The death of such a person is not just the death of a single individual, it is also the death of all the hope and courage he brings into the people of a place which has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons since the last three decades. He didn’t just bought stories of Bastar he bought a part which was not just overshadowed by Maoist but was truly about its people, their suffering and the injustice they had been undergoing for the longest of time. Chandarkar was a man who didn’t shy away from saying the truth, he was neither a coward when it came to stand with the right things nor a weakling who didn’t have any courage.
However, the end of such fierce journalist was something which shook not just Bastar but the entire journalist community. Protection of journalists has been a major issue for Indian journalists, a lot of them had been threatened various times in their lives and so many like Mukesh had been murdered. According to the Hindu, India has been the seventh most dangerous country for journalists in the past decade. For a country whose fourth pillar of democracy is journalism, we are doing quite a good job in protecting these journalists. Does saying the truth means nothing now, have we as a country become so intune with crimes that they don’t affect us at all.
The power of independent media has grown significantly in the past five to six years, these independent media houses are not controlled by multinational companies. They are usually run by journalists who are not afraid to speak about the atrocities which are happening in the society and are rather way too courageous than the people around them are able to digest. Maybe that’s why they pose such a big threat to the people with power and money. I think that’s why Mukesh was such a big threat to the corrupted people around him, which led to his ultimate demise. Fear makes a human do horrible things I have heard.
Living in this country has taught me one thing over the years, you will be threatened or killed if you speak too much of the truth. That death is what will be served if your truth is not something which the masses can handle. Yet, there are these exceptional individuals like Mukesh Chandarkar, who are born fighters. They don’t know how to keep quiet when they see something wrong around them, they speak; irrespective of its consequences or how bad it will end for them. People like him restore my faith that some things in this country can still be saved. They remind me that there are individuals who genuinely care for our society and nation. This belief has rekindled my hope for a better society and a stronger country, no matter how many challenges lie ahead.
I promise to always remember you, Mukesh Chandarkar and hope that the kind of Bastar you envisioned could be made one day.
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