Political communication is the oxygen of an open democracy like
India. In the nascent nation’s life, a turning point had arrived when the
government had to impose the first national emergency and Defence of India
rules in the wake of Chinese attack on India in 1962. Read all about the beginning
of gagging the Press in Part-VII of series on Political Communication by S
Narendra, former adviser to PMs and ex-PIO and Govt Spokesperson.
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| Chow-En-Lai with Nehru - the Great Betrayal |
The Constitution
of India provides national emergency declaration when there is an external threat to national
security under Art:356. When such an emergency was proclaimed in 1962, it was accompanied
by the Defence of India Rules and Media Censorship. Unlike the blanket
censorship that was imposed in 1975 internal emergency, particularly on
political communication and dissent, censorship under DOI were limited in scope and covered matters that could pose a threat to national
security. The Armed Forces Information Office, a wing of the Press Information
Bureau, was strengthened for dealing with media censorship.
Fortunately
for the government, the media of those days meant only the Press and two news
agencies and official All India Radio. The media itself enveloped by patriotic
fervour, practiced self–censorship. The air was filled with patriotic
exhortations, national songs and public demonstrations of national unity,
reminding one of the freedom movement days.
In
Mysore, where I lived, foot-falls in restaurants increased during AIR main
bulletin timings. People would gather at restaurants’ to listen to the AIR news. The sense of emergency was brought
closer whenever an ARP (air raid precaution) drill was done, with police vans wailing sirens and making announcements asking people
to take precautions in the event of an air raid.
Please click on this video clip and enjoy the patriotic fervour
The
ever green Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon sung by Lata Mangeshkar (reportedly brought tears to Nehru) was a product of this time; so also Chetan
Anand’s Haqueekat. The Chinese attack
seems to have jolted some of the political parties like DMK that were agitating
of their states’ independence.
The
government set up the National Integration Council for undertaking programmes
all over the country for strengthening national solidarity. The Congress party
subtly used the outpouring of nationalistic fervour for stemming the mounting
criticism of PM Nehru’s China policy. The Defence minister Krishna Menon, Nehru’s
favourite, had been forced out of the government..
Media Control And Propaganda: As
far as the government move to control the media through censorship was
concerned, 1962 was not the first time when this was done. As the home
minister, Rajaji had introduced the
prevention of objectionable matters Act in the face of left wing insurgency. The government was
getting worried about the concentration of newspaper ownership and monopolistic
tendencies which posed a danger to plurality of media. The mismanagement of
Bennet Coleman Company publishing the Times of India, Illustrated Weekly group
of newspapers had allowed the government to supersede its management. AINEC or
all India Newspaper Editors Conference was a powerful body that often sought
the government help in preserving the position of the independence of the
editor in a newspaper.
Also,
the government’s Working Journalists (1955) had not gone down well with the owners.
An unstated but obvious trigger for the government to be alarmed was the big
newspapers’ enthusiasm for the new Swatantra Party founded in 1959 by Rajaji
with its free market philosophy that
challenged the Congress Party’s socialistic ideology. The big
newspapers’ owners also owned general insurance, banks and industries. A large
number of small and medium newspapers run by individuals and trusts motivated
by missionary zeal had sprung up during the freedom movement but in
post-independence India they were facing ‘unfair’ competition from big
newspaper chains that were offering supplements, free of cost.
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| The Author |
By
increasing the number of pages they were able to pull in most of the
advertising space as well. For countering this trend, the official advertising
policy favoured small and medium (especially the language ones) papers. But
since AIR shunned commercial advertising, the flow of such ad money from
businesses went to big newspapers
chains.
Price–Page Schedule Act: Against
this background, the government invoked out of the blue a dormant law – the
Newspapers (Price and Control) Act 1956 - compelling newspapers to charge cover
price according to the number of pages offered.
The
Sakal group of newspapers (founded by Parulekar, the first formally trained
Indian journalist) successfully challenged this Law before the Supreme Court.
The government had argued that this Order was based on a suggestion made by the
first Press Commission. Upholding the petitioner’s argument that the relevant
Law and the subsequent Order impinged upon the citizen fundamental right to
profession guaranteed under Art:19 of the Constitution, the Court struck down
the law. (Next: Ban on Radio Advertising)
