Principal Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, Naresh Chauhan negated the allegations of Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur and other leaders of the State BJP pertaining to releasing of Rs. 2.34 crore in the shape of advertisements to the National Herald newspaper.
Terming the allegations as baseless and far from the truth, he stated that the BJP leaders were trying to mislead the people of the country without ascertaining the facts and were bent upon to malign the image of the Chief Minister on the issue, which would not be tolerated.
He said that during the last two and a half years, the advertisements worth rupees one crore have been given to the National Herald newspaper whereas the BJP, during its regime under the leadership of the then Chief Minister Jai ram Thakur released the advertisements worth crores of rupees to their mouthpiece journals and magazines.
Citing examples, he revealed that “Organiser’ and ‘Panchjanaya’ and ‘Matrivandana’ magazines and journals, considered to be the mouthpiece of Bhartiya Janata Party were given advertisements amounting to more than two crores rupees. Apart from this, ‘Deep Kamal Sandesh’, ‘Chhatra Udghosh’ magazine of ABVP, the magazine brought out by RSS Tarun Bharat published from Nagpur to which advertisement of more than Rs. 74 lakh were given by the State BJP during its regime, the name of which the people have never heard.
Over and above, the Jai Ram Government issued advertisement of more than Rs. 2.93 crore to the papers, magazines and journals associated with the Bhartiya Janata Party. I am astonished over the statement of the BJP leaders that the National Herald paper weekly is no more published he stated continuing that the National and the State leaders of the BJP have little or no knowledge regarding this.
The National Herald weekly is still being taken out and regularly published as a weekly from Delhi in English and ‘Sunday Navjeevan’ in Hindi. Besides, the Mumbai publication is also being taken out regularly. He said that the BJP, which was running a coalition government at the centre, was harassing those associated with the Congress party and other opposition political parties by misusing central investigation agencies due to fear of its continuously decreasing popularity.
The top leadership of the BJP is scared of senior Congress leaders and particularly from the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who has been continuously raising the voice of the people against the atrocities of the BJP. The Chief Media Advisor said that the Congress party started the publication of the National Herald in 1938 which was owned by Associated Journals Limited (AJL).
This newspaper played an important role in the freedom movement of the country. It had to be closed due to financial losses of about Rs. 90 crore and was transferred to the Young Indian Company under the provisions of Section-8. There was no mention of any kind of financial gain, money laundering or change of assets. He said that this was an attempt to weaken the democracy but the Congress party would plea its case legally.
Naresh Chauhan has advised the Leader of Opposition and other BJP leaders that instead of trying to weaken the democratically elected government they should give constructive support to the government to take back the legitimate rights of the state. The MLAs of the opposition have also been elected by the people of this state, so it is their moral responsibility to refrain from the feeling of political vengeance and misleading propaganda, he remarked.
