(EDITORIAL) Considering that the meeting of the Standing Committee of the All-India Newspaper Editors’ Conference which listened to Sardar Patel on Sunday [Oct 13] in New Delhi, was mainly a gathering of mutual admirers, much of the irony of the Sardar’s oratorical flourishes must have wasted its neatness in the Ball-room air of Hotel Imperial.

In cold print some of the Interim Information Member’s homilies on the freedom of the Press seem cool indeed. He began with a strong denunciation of what he described as “unprecedented invasion of the liberty of the Press” by the former regime. Of the motives of that regime the Sardar was eloquently doubt-free. He said: “Intent on suppressing the freedom movement, the Government of the day strove to prevent publicity about the movement and even about the sufferings and sacrifice of the people”. And he congratulated the Press for resisting as well as it could “these inroads into its rights”.

We have no doubt that such sentiments from such lips dropped on the editorial ears of the AINEC variety like manna from heaven. Others however may be forgiven for having longer memories of the past and a keener vision of the present… .

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2021