Bengaluru: Nine years after it was shut down following financial trouble, the National Herald, widely considered the Congress party's mouthpiece, will be back in circulation – now as a weekly – with Vice-President Hamid Ansari to formally launch it in the city on Monday. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be by his side as the newspaper launched in 1938 by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Lucknow, primarily to articulate his thoughts on the freedom movement and trends emerging in the Congress party, rolls out.
It’s still too early to judge the orientation the weekly will take in the current climate where the media feels it is being targeted. The newspaper carried on its masthead the words ‘Freedom is in Peril, Defend it with All Your Might.’
There is a general feeling that it will present the views of Left liberals who lament that Centrist and left-of-centre ideas have disappeared from the media scene after the saffron wave in the country. Former Union minister Oscar Fernandes, one of the trustees of The Associated Journal Limited (AJL), that is behind the relaunch told Deccan Chronicle that the National Herald will makes its splash in Delhi after June 20 with President Pranab Mukherjee likely to launch the first edition of the new format. "We are now launching the weekly edition, we have plans to make it a daily. It will be brought out in English and Hindi and in due course, a Urdu edition is also in the offing," Mr Fernandes said.
On whether it would be a platform to express Left-of-Centre and Centrist thoughts, he said, "I would say it will reflect the national spirit." Maintaining that a dedicated team of journalists is already in place to run the newspaper, he disclosed that the first edition would on 70 years of India's independence. "Later, we will focus on Panditji's (Jawaharalal Nehru) vision.
" Asked if the weekly will also focus on current affairs, he said, "Naturally, whatever touches the hearts of the Indian public would be reflected here." He added that scholars and experts from across the world will contribute to the National Herald.
