CIVIL LIBERTIES-The Customs as Censors

CIVIL LIBERTIES The Customs as Censors A G Noorani THE Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee's statement in the Rajya Sabha on March 25 on the Customs authorities' power to impound magazines has at least the merit of openness. This is in glaring contrast to the disgracefully underhand official suppression of copies of two Indian periodicals, Sunday and India Today, which the Government of India simply refuses to own up to. Yet, as member after member pointed cut in the Rajya Sabha on March 14 .all available copies of these journals were bought up during the week the NAM summit was on. A formal ban could have been challenged in a court of law and attracted unwelcome publicity. Hence, the dishonest strategy.