Mumbai edition of National Herald presented to Congress president Sonia Gandhi

AJL Chairman and former Union minister Pawan Bansal and Group Senior Editorial Advisor Mrinal Pandey called upon Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence 10, Janpath on Thursday and presented her with a copy of the Mumbai edition of National Herald.

The edition was launched on November 14 on the occasion of the 132nd birth anniversary of its founder and the country's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,

Started in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru as a daily newspaper, National Herald played an important role in the freedom struggle and went through a series of censorship battles, choosing to shut down rather than submit to British diktats. Nationalism was at the core of its publishing philosophy.

In the present scenario, the newspaper endeavours to fill the vacuum for independent and impartial media at a time when the freedom of expression has been under an unprecedented threat.

It is in that spirit that National Herald was launched in Mumbai to offer readers a fiercely independent journalism committed to truth, courage and honour.

The weekly newspaper will function out of its building in Bandra which was inaugurated on November 14 by Pawan Bansal in the presence of AJL board member Suman Dubey, Mrinal Pandey, Consulting Editor Uttam Sengupta, Mumbai Resident Editor Sujata Anandan and Business Head & Chief Executive Officer Piyush Jain.

Many prominent personalities including Maharashtra cabinet ministers Balasaheb Thorat, Amit Deshmukh, Aslam Shaikh, KC Padvi, Vishwajeet Kadam (Minister of State), Nawab Malik, Varsha Gaikwad, Nitin Raut, and former chief minister Ashok Chavan, besides a number of writers and journalists graced the occasion.

MRCC President Bhai Jagtap, Sanjay Nirupam (former MRCC President), Janardhan Chandurkar (former MRCC President), Chandrakant Handore (MPCC Working President), Zeeshan Siddique (President, Mumbai Youth Congress), Charansingh Sapra (Working President, MRCC) also attended the event.

In addition to the editorial offices, the building houses a library, a cafeteria, an auditorium and a wall dedicated to the history of National Herald.

The National Herald group includes 'Navjivan' in Hindi and 'Qaumi Awaz' in Urdu.