National Herald, which is better known as the mouthpiece of the Congress party has in the past been a thorn in the Gandhi family’s shoe, for being the epicentre of a Rs 5,000 scam, which allegedly involves the dynasty.
To recall briefly, the publication shut shop in 2008 with a total debt of Rs 90 crores. It later was taken over by a firm called Young India with a paid-up capital of Rs 5 lakh, which promised to clear all its debt, provided all the shares of the publication’s parent company were transferred to Young India.
But incidentally even though the debt amounted to Rs 90 crores, the publication’s parent company was the owner of various prime real estate properties which amounted to a total of anything between Rs 1600 crores and Rs 5000 crores, hence the debt should never have been a problem in the 1st place.
It has been alleged that both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi control a 38% stake each in Young India and allegedly earned assets worth Rs 1900 crores as a result of the deal. Plus they allegedly also earned a rent of approximately Rs 60 lakh per month for renting out the press area property. As a result of this a probe in this matter was ordered by the Patiala House Court.
Even though the publication carried such a baggage, its digital operations were revived in November, 2016.
Since then the publication has almost become infamous for spreading blatant lies like falsely claiming how a hospital which was funded by the Prime Minister relief fund, went to the Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences (GAIMS).
National Herald now seems to have restarted its lying spree after tweeting this:
After @narendramodi led @BJP4India Government came to power (2014), on the occasion of Republic day 2015, it issued and advertisement with the preamble of Constitution in which words Secular and Socialist were missing.@INCIndia@RSSorghttps://t.co/IMAqkl3oKG
— National Herald (@NH_India) January 13, 2018
As seen above, the Newspaper claimed that the Modi government during the Republic Day in 2015 had issued an advertisement where the preamble of the constitution didn’t contain the words Secular and Socialist. These two words in the constitution are generally used by political parties to try and prove that they are pro-poor and pro-minorities and by alleging that the Modi government had omitted them, opened it up for an attack on that front.
This though was not true and as reported by us back in 2015 itself and this was the advertisement in question:
The truth of the matter was that the image used by the Government, in the advertisement is in fact of the Original, Un-Amended, Un-Edited preamble to the constitution. A copy of the same is easily available online.
The words “secular” and “socialist” were inserted into the preamble of the constitution through the 42ndamendment during the Emergency. In fact, this act of amendment was one of the black periods of our democracy and an attack on the spirit of the constitution.
The image, which is barely used in the background of the advertisement, basically celebrated an old copy of the constitution’s preamble, which was like showcasing a historical souvenir.
This advertisement didn’t amend the constitution. The only intention of the Government in using this original picture in the advertisement was most probably to highlight the original untampered document, and not its content. It is like showcasing a piece of history.
But a activists then and now the National Herald, has used this half-cooked knowledge to attack the Modi government on this front.
