Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said the current dispensation led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was silencing the voices that speak the truth.
“Thousands of journalists in the country tell me they are not allowed to write what they want. The National Herald has a strong spirit and it is not going to be silent,” said Rahul during the launch of the commemorative edition of the Congress mouthpiece to mark 70 years of Indian Independence, in Bengaluru on Monday.
Rahul hit back at the BJP-led government for stopping his entry to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh during the farmers' protests recently and said, “This is the India we are living in... a country where power is simply used to manufacture truth. Everybody knows what the truth is, but people are scared to say.”
Quoting a Soviet poet, he said “When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.” This is what the government is trying to do. It is forcing everything into silence, Rahul said.
Expressing confidence that the daily, founded by his great-grandfather Pandit Nehru in 1938, would rise to the occasion, he said, “The editor came to me some time back. I told him when he wants to say something against the congress party, its ideas or me, I will be absolutely comfortable and want him to say it without any fear. That is the spirit we expect from the National Herald. Speak the truth, and do not be silenced or scared. There are huge opportunities for you. Thousands of journalists are not allowed to write what they want. Open your doors to these people. Have free recruits at all places. Speak the truth, don't be scared.”
Delivering the keynote address, Vice-President Hamid Ansari said the press had emerged as a tool for national awakening and become a medium of nationalist political participation for the masses. “It was also a medium for propagation of modern ideas of democracy, freedom and equality. It helped in communication between nationalists across the country, welding the country into a single nation and identity.”
He warned that it was wrong to use newspaper as a means of earning one's livelihood, because journalism, as Mahatma Gandhi believed, was a public service. “When a newspaper is treated as a means of making profits, the result is likely to be serious malpractices,” he added.
Congress MP Oscar Fernandes said that the daily founded by Nehru in 1938 had been suspended in 2008, and was now in the process of reviving even the Hindi (Navjivan) and Urdu (Quami Awaz) editions.
“The website launched eight months back is undergoing upgradation and will be fully operational by the end of this month,” said Fernandes.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said journalism played a highly impactful role in the struggle for India's Independence, and was synonymous with nationalism, patriotism and secularism. “National Herald always championed the cause of the freedom of press and was considered the ‘voice of India’,” he said.
Pointing out that Karnataka had always resurrected many personalities and projects, Siddaramaiah said, “Congress Party cannot forget the magnanimity extended to Indira Gandhi by the Kannadigas during her epic political battles. It is no happy coincidence that by the launch of this special edition in Bengaluru, the newspaper is re-emerging as a potent voice of Indians.”
“At these times of political patronage of the press, we must recall that Nehru in 1947, had resigned as chairman of the board of National Herald as he became part of the interim government,” added Siddaramaiah.
