Veteran nonagenarian journalist and former Senior Special Correspondent of ‘The Motherland’, Shri Kedar Nath Gupta, today presented a historical memento from the days of Emergency of 1975 to RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Shri Sunil Ambekar at the Jhandewalan RSS headquarters in New Delhi.
“The Motherland was the only newspaper in India which brought out a special edition on the morning after the draconian Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975, defying the diktat of then Prime Minister Ms Indira Gandhi who had suspended civil liberties and slapped pre-censorship on media. It is this historical edition that we have framed and brought to the karyalaya”, Mr Gupta informed ‘The Organiser’ and ‘Panchjanya’.
Shri KR Malkani, the Editor of The Motherland, was the first person to be arrested as soon as Emergency was declared by the then government. Mr Gupta said that “Shri Malkani informed our senior colleague Shri DN Singh and me to swing into action and ensure publication of the edition for next morning. His direction was clear, that it was important to inform the citizens of India about the mass arrests of opposition leaders like JP, Morarji, Advani, Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar and Krishna Kant, many senior journalists and RSS workers. Both of us rushed to the office at Deendayal Upadhyay Building at Jhandewalan and felt happy to see that the entire editorial and press staff was present in full strength and raring to go in spite of the danger of being arrested for defying the Emergency guidelines. The edition was printed and distributed heavily in the capital and also sent to railway stations so that it could reach every nook and corner of the country.”
“There was a wave of shock and indignation across the country as fascist forces overtook democracy in a midnight swoop arresting thousands in a single go.That was the darkest period of modern India”, Mr Gupta told a group of journalists, “and this happened under the Congress rule”.
Correspondents of The Motherland contacted families of those who had been arrested and carried their interviews against the government, without any fear of the draconian MISA Act which had been invoked.
I was pained to watch on television the just-concluded Parliament debate on the Constitution, during which none of the senior leaders recalled the courage and conviction of ‘The Motherland’ editor and staff that had taken many risks to print the first and only edition after the fateful night that the infamous Emergency had been invoked.
I am thankful to Shri Sunil Ambekar who has assured us that this fact will be disseminated to everyone.
Tracing the history of ‘The Motherland’, Shri Gupta added that the RSS leaders of those days had a grand vision for setting up several newspapers and magazines. For this reason, Bharat Prakashan was founded in 1946, which later became the Publisher of ‘The Motherland’ newspaper. Bharat Prakashan later bought the printing press of the ‘Dawn’ newspaper owned by Mohd Ali Jinnah. This famous Latifi Press became the first printing press for ‘Organiser’ also.
Gupta wished that RSS leaders would make efforts to revive The Motherland and our first Hindi Daily Bharatvarsh. On this occasion, all those present paid warm tributes to Bharat Mata, RSS founder Dr Keshavrao Hedgewar and ‘Guruji’ Shri MS Golwalkar. Tributes were also paid to Shri KR Malkani, Shri DN Singh and all other editorial and printing staff of The Motherland who are no longer with us.
