DW BUREAU / Shimla

Principal Media Advisor to the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Naresh Chauhan, on Saturday clarified over allegations of BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur, pertaining to the release of Rs 2.34 crore in the shape of government advertisements to the National Herald newspaper.

Terming the allegations as baseless and far from the truth, he said the BJP leaders were trying to mislead the people without ascertaining facts and were bent upon to malign the image of the Chief Minister on the issue, which would not be tolerated. He said that in two and a half years, the advertisements of Rs 2.34 crore have been given to the National Herald newspaper, whereas the BJP, during its regime under the leadership of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, released the advertisements worth crores of rupees to their mouthpiece journals and magazines.

Citing examples, he said 'Organiser' and 'Panchjanaya' and 'Matrivandana' magazines and journals, considered to be the mouthpiece of the BJP, were given advertisements of more than Rs 2 crore.

Besides, 'Deep Kamal Sandesh', 'Chhatra Udghosh' magazine of the ABVP, the magazine brought out by RSS 'Tarun Bharat', published from Nagpur, to which advertisements of more than Rs 74 lakh were given by the BJP during its regime, the name of which the people have never heard. Over and above, the Thakur Government issued advertisements of more than Rs 2.93 crore to papers, magazines and journals associated with the BJP.

"I am astonished by the statement of the BJP leaders that the National Herald paper weekly is no longer published," Chauhan told the media here.

The National Herald weekly is regularly published from Delhi in English and 'Sunday Navjeevan' in Hindi. Besides, the Mumbai publication is also being taken out regularly.

He said the BJP, which was running a coalition government at the Centre, is harassing those associated with the Congress and other Opposition political parties by misusing central investigation agencies due to fear of its continuously decreasing popularity.

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.

(editor@dailyworld.in)