After the formation of the Associate Journal in 1937, Jawaharlal Nehru started the National Herald newspaper on 9 September 1938, it was just 9 years before independence. Thousands of freedom fighters played an important role in starting this newspaper. There were three newspapers under this, ‘National Herald’ in English, ‘Navjivan’ in Hindi and ‘Qaumi Awaaz’ in Urdu. This National Herald remains in the headlines today.
In fact, in the National Herald case, the ED has filed a charge sheet on many people including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for a money laundering case of Rs 988 crore. After which the political uproar arose is not taking the name of stopping.
These three newspapers were operated by the Associate Journal i.e. AGL. But even then it was believed that this newspaper runs at the behest of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. From 1942 to 1945, the publication of this newspaper was also banned by the British. That is, this newspaper could not be published for 3 years. After the independence of the country, when Pandit Nehru became Prime Minister, he resigned as the chairman of the board of these newspapers. After this, Indira Gandhi’s husband Feroz Gandhi was made the managing director of his board. After this, gradually the economic condition of this associate journal ie AGL started deteriorating.
National Herald newspaper was replaced for money in trust
Pandit Nehru’s personal secretary O. M. Mathai mentioned in his book that Feroze Gandhi was not very good in the operation of this company. So this National Herald got caught in economic crisis. Which was converted into the Public Interest Fund Trust to overcome the economic crisis. This new trust was also occupied by the Nehru family. All the trustees of this trust were made very close to Nehru and his family.
O. M. Mathai even claimed in his book that a bribe of two lakh rupees was sought from the Maharaja of Baroda for the National Herald. When Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was informed about this, he complained to Nehru. At that time, in the name of advertisement, this newspaper received lakhs of money from many big industrial houses in a year. As soon as Pandit Nehru was Prime Minister, land was also allotted to make the National Herald on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in Delhi.
Sardar Patel wrote a letter to Nehru on the National Herald scam
That is, the scam in the National Herald is not a recent story of financial misconduct, its roots have emerged since the early years of independent India. In 1950, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wrote a letter to Nehru to misuse the government machinery to support the National Herald and also warned about extortion money. These concerns recorded in Sardar Patel’s correspondence were rejected by Nehru, while he was apprehensive about its long -term effects. Decades later, Patel’s warning is now coming to the people when the ED is investigating the matter.
The ED has filed a charge sheet against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the case, accusing them of misusing assets worth Rs 5,000 crore through Young India Limited, which is under their control and is associated with the National Herald and its original company Associate Journal Limited. The warning of the warning letter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has now turned into a big scam.
On May 5, 1950, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wrote a letter to Nehru to concern that the National Herald accepted more than Rs 75,000 from two persons associated with Himalayan Airways. He said that the airline has obtained government contracts for the night air post service by ignoring the objections of the Indian Air Force. In the same letter, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel warned Nehru that the National Herald had accepted funds from a businessman named Akhhani, who was involved in acquiring night postal contracts for his aviation company. Patel mentioned that Akhani was also raising funds from firms like Tata and Air Services of India.
Sardar Patel’s letter opened the entire secret of the scam
In the letter, Patel further wrote to Nehru that Akhni has already already allegations in various courts for cheating on banks. He also gave a warning letter by the then Union Minister Ahmed Kidwai about misusing his post to raise funds for the National Herald, including collecting funds from traders in Lucknow like JP Srivastava.
On the same day, on 5 May 1950, Nehru responded to Patel in such a tone, which seemed to be trying to calm him down. Nehru mentioned in his letter that he has asked his son -in -law Feroz Gandhi, who was the general manager of the National Herald at that time, to investigate the allegations of this illegal money collection.
Just the very next day, on 6 May, Patel rejected Nehru’s claims and replied to Nehru again. Then an attempt was made to calm Patel. But the concern about illegal funding by Sardar Patel was sidelined. However, Nehru then admitted that there would have been some mistakes in it.