We welcome the strange voice

There is an invisible censor; there is 24x7 monitoring of all major newspapers and TV channels; there are discreet telephone calls to the editors... Fear is the worst enemy of freedom. India can have either a fear-stricken Press or a free Press

- 

IF YOU HEARD a narrator read the speech, you would have thought that the words belonged to Bal Gangadhar Tilak or Jawaharlal Nehru or Jayaprakash Narayan or Nelson Mandela, and you would be wrong. The speaker was the honourable prime minister, Mr Narendra Modi.

The words will be music to reporters who have tried, in vain for 11 years, to extract a press conference from the prime minister; they may hope, finally, Mr Modi will break his resolve not to answer questions from journalists at a live, televised press conference. The words would reassure editorial writers that they need not be perpetually on guard and write 'balanced' editorials sprinkled with phrases like 'on the one hand' and 'on the other hand'. The words will motivate the naughty artist to take out his pencils and draw cartoons 'sparing no one, not even the prime minister'. The words will be a shot in the arm for editors who have 'buried' numerous stories with a prayer 'Reader forgive me for I know what I do'.

Saluting courage

Mr Modi's words were indeed inspiring. Ramnath Goenka's motto was Journalism of Courage. That became the motto of the newspaper that he founded with the same words adorning the masthead every day. Eulogising Ramnath Goenka, the prime minister said: