Dainik Statesman turns twenty two this year. The inception of Dainik was at the cog churning political landscape of Bengal. 28th June, 2004 saw the publication of Dainik Statesman. The CPI-M had just won the Lok Sabha vote. Arambagh saw the left winning six lakh majority, the highest ever division among the state. Bengal had very few solitary voices in the Press, who had the courage to print anything against the Left front. Most major news agencies had kept their silence. A major newspaper saw their doors shut because they had raised their voices. After just two years of the birth of Dainik Statesman, CPI-M got a landslide majority, with Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as the chief minister. Such was the power mongering that Bhattacharya said, “If any opposition raises their voice, it will be crushed with force.”
After a rule of 29 years, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya decided to monger farm lands. Conflicts began. Under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, the revolt for farmers and their land autonomy began. The Bengali print media played a major role in it. Dainik Statesman played a major role in forming the collective opinion of the common people. Despite being a new paper, Dainik Statesman did not back down in this struggle. In a matter of fact Dainik Statesman delivered to the cause of the movement. This was one of the major cascading effects that led to the fall of the left front in Bengal. This voice of resistance reached the villages, and all the Bengali reading community.
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Biswajit Bhattacharya, former Indian team footballer said: “Dainik Statesman has a different emotional place in my heart. Taking a fearless stance, Dainik Statesman delivered the truth when no other voice was present.” Sudeshna Ray, film director, “During our childhood, the name Statesman invoked the images of a perfect building and the prestige of a great newspaper. But what made me feel better is that The Statesman branched out in my mother tongue Bengali along with English. Many had the notion that this newspaper won’t survive the test of time, yet Dainik Statesman turns 22 this year.”