(EDITORIAL) When Mr. Srinivasa Sastry addressed the Conference of Editors in Madras, he insisted that “it is in your power to write daily and demand the release of the men who alone can represent India in her true spirit”. He made the positive statement that the initiative lay with the British Government and the British Government alone, thus fortifying the attitude of Mr. Gandhi that he, for his part, would not disavow the Resolution of August 8 and exercise his initiative for emerging from detention ... After paying respectful attention the editors obviously agreed to comply; at any rate, they have started a combined bally-hoo asserting that the responsibility and initiative for solving the deadlock lay with the Government. ... But the point is that this sort of pre-arranged propaganda in unison will not only harden the resolve of those who have the power of changing the situation; it ties newspapers to a groan of repetition that in addition to affecting their independence must lose their value as guides of public opinion.

Mr. Brelvi [president of the All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference] hotly contended that the press in India is not “a servile press”, but the fulfilment of Mr. Sastry’s instruction does not speak for anything but mental slavery...

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2019