Strained Relations

Strained Relations Nireekshak WHAT with the spectre of diffusion of ownership still haunting the boardrooms of most metropolitan newspapers, regulation of sale prices and the peremptory restriction of the maximum size of dajlies to ten pages relations between the government and the press barons have taken a steep plunge. The latest unofficial message from Delhi is that a full fledged price-page schedule is on the way and will replace the hurriedly improvised price regulation measure in the not too distant future. It is perhaps a measure of the growing nervousness in the more opulent boardrooms at government's seeming determination to reshape the existing structure of the press that even a newspaper like Statesman, which had lapsed into a sullen silence over press affairs after the mid-term parliamentary poll, has suddenly found its voice. And the voice, instead of being arrogant and self-righteous as it was prone to be until March last" year, has also become noticeably low-pitched and conciliatory.