Dia Chakravarti

Dia Sudeshna Chakravarty (; born 1984) is a Bangladeshi-born British political activist, former political director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, singer, and Brexit Editor of The Daily Telegraph.

Early life Chakravarty was born in Bangladesh to parents of two different faiths. Her Muslim mother, Sultana Kamal, is a lawyer and human rights activist who runs a legal aid organisation in Bangladesh. Her Hindu Brahmin father, Supriyo Chakravarty, is also a lawyer. Her parents both decided to keep their respective religions after marriage.

Because of Chakravarty's parents' and grandparents' activism and anti-fundamentalist stance, her family have been under threat on and off her whole life. She has grown up with threatening telephone calls and her home has been firebombed twice. In January 2014, she was appointed political director of the TaxPayers' Alliance.

Chakravarty moved into communications and public affairs. She worked for Banking on Change, a global partnership between Barclays Bank and two international charities seeking to extend access to basic financial services through savings-led microfinance.

In August 2014, Chakravarty appeared on BBC Two's Newsnight, discussing consultancy culture in the public sector. In November 2014 and March 2015, and October 2016, she appeared on BBC One's Question Time. In January 2015, she contributed on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions?

In July 2017, Chakravarty, a prominent Leave campaigner during the UK EU membership Referendum campaign, was appointed Brexit Editor of The Daily Telegraph.

In September 2017, Chakravarty appeared on Question Time. In October, Chakravarty appeared on Newsnight, discussing Brexit. In the same month, she was listed at Number 100 by commentator Iain Dale in his '100 Most Influential on the Right'.

Singing career Chakravarty took her first music lesson from Prateek Enda in Sylhet and had an early start in her musical training in Rabindranath Tagore songs.

Personal life In October 2007, Chakravarty married Duncan Hall. She met her husband while at school and decided to settle in England after completing her university and Bar examinations. Chakravarty is also involved with Udayan, a Bengali cultural group.

Discography A Bloom in Vain and Other Songs

A Bloom in Vain and Other Songs is the debut studio album by Dia Chakravarty, released on 22 August 2014. Chakravarty, having studied law at the University of Oxford, chose songs of composers, who, except for Dwijendralal, studied law, including Tagore who eventually dropped out; and except for Rajanikanta, every one of them went to England for higher studies.

In August 2014, Chakravarty told New Age, "Music is my passion and runs through my blood. I love to sing Bangla songs of almost every genre."

The album consists of four pairs of tracks by a quartet of composers – Rabindranath Tagore, Atulprasad Sen, Dwijendralal Ray, and Rajanikanta Sen from the late 1800s to early 1900s. It was arranged by Prattyush Banerjee and recorded by Goutam Basu in Usha Uthup's music studio "Studio Vibrations" in Kolkata.

The album was released by Laser Vision on 22 August 2014. at Sufia Kamal Auditorium at Bangladesh National Museum.

Mosabber Rahman of the Dhaka Tribune said of Chakravarty, "Her voice lacks pretension, and she has the sincerity of a schoolgirl preparing for the final exam".

Track listing