Advice and Dissent

Advice and Dissent Nireekshak IT is difficult to believe that the Hindu could ever clash with the powers that be. But it has happened. The Hindu, it would seem, published a comment made by C Subramaniam, President of the Tamilnad Congress Committee, to the effect that the official language resolution adopted by the Madras Legislative Assembly was "the biggest political fraud". The matter engaged the attention of the Assembly which adopted a motion moved by a DMK member authorising the Speaker to give "show cause" notices to Subramaniam and the publisher of the Hindu asking them why they should not be held to have committed contempt of the House. The Hindu, quite surprisingly, got tangled also with the Union Government. The paper published a report from Madras saying that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had discouraged visits to South India by delegates to UNCTAD and by foreign correspondents covering the conference. So taut are nerves in Delhi these days that one Congress MP imputed motives to the Hindu for publishing the report. lt\ the Rajya Sabha, K K Shah, the Information Minister, was moved to say that there was no truth at all in the Hindu's allegation. It must have been a rather trying week for the distinguished daily from Madras.