New Delhi: Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publishers of the English newspaper National Herald, a Hindi daily Navjeevan and an Urdu daily Qaumi Awaz is set to revive the defunct newspapers.
Apparently, the Company has ropes in journalist Neelabh Mishra as editor-in-chief for the newspapers. Nehru started the three papers years before he became the first prime minister of India.
AJL stated that the tagline of the revived publications would be “freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might,” reflecting the mood of the Congress party.
The Congress will revive National Herald, Navjeevan and Qaumi Awaz from the AJL stable over the coming months, said Congress treasurer Motilal Vora, chairman of AJL.
The publications was started in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru and it was shut by Congress in 2008 as they were incurring losses. Before Congress was defeated in 2014 national polls, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)’s Subramanian Swamy had lodged a criminal case against the Gandhi family and some Congress leaders in 2012 saying funds were misappropriated.
Swamy said the motive of the transaction was to acquire Rs 5,000-crore real estate the AJL owned in various cities of the country. Over the past two years, Congress adopted an aggressive stance on the case and disrupted Parliament several times to counter the BJP.
The papers would seek to give voice to Nehru’s vision also under assault from the BJP and would strive to occupy liberal, progressive and secular space while also reflecting the concerns of the underprivileged.
