Journalists are not free to write what they want to write: Rahul Gandhi

Bengaluru: The commemorative edition of the National Herald has been unveiled by Vice President of India Mohammed Hamid Ansari and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru on Monday.

“The National Herald has the spirit. It has a very strong spirit. It is not going to be silent. The editor came to me some time back, I told him, that there might be time where you have to say things against Congress party, against me, against some of our ideas. I wanted you absolutely comfortable, I wanted you to say things because it is important that we hear them,’’ Rahul Gandhi said.

Elaborating on the imbalance between power of truth and truth of power, he said that power of truth is completely replaced by the truth of power. “Anybody who attempts to say truth or to stand by truth is pushed aside in different forms. Dalits are beaten up, minorities are frightened and journalists are threatened, bureaucrats are threatened,’’ Gandhi said.

He said thousands and thousands of journalists in the country are not being allowed to write what they wanted to write. “They told me that they were not allowed to write what they want. National Herald should open door to such people,’’ he said.

Recalling how he was prevented from entering Madhya Pradesh, he said that In Madhya Pradesh, policeman himself saying that he was being forced to do something that he doesn’t want to do. “I asked him that I am a citizen of India. I am allowed to come to Madhya Pradesh. On what basis are you stopping me? Is there a law which you are applying? He looked at me and said that there is no law but I have been told,’’ he said.

He has also recalled how was stopped at Uttar Pradesh border when he wanted to meet some people there. “The police told me that I can’t go to Uttar Pradesh. Everybody knows what is the truth but they are scared to say it,’’ he said.

Delivering a keynote address, Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari said Indian journalists were social activists and press played an important role during the Independence movement. “I am sure National Herald will live up to the high standards that Pandit Nehru set. A democracy needs a free press, society needs the same,’’ Ansari said.

He said the National Herald began from Lucknow in 1938 and soon became the voice of Indian independence movement. “The history of freedom struggle in India is closely linked to Indian journalists were not merely news providers. They were social activists and freedom fighters. They wanted to rid not only foreign rule but also our society to rid from social prejudices, casteism, communalism and discrimination’’ he said.

He said the Press played an important role in educating, convincing and mobilizing people. “Many founding members of Congress in 1885 were journalists. Press emerged as a tool of national awakening. It became a medium of nationalist political participation of masses,’’ he said.