Blank space: Why Telangana Urdu daily ran empty editorial

An Urdu daily in Telangana ran blank edit pages to protest against freezing of government advertisements by the Congress-led state government.

The Munsif Daily claimed that Revanth Reddy's Congress government has chosen to “punish the Urdu daily for speaking the truth” and wrote a special feature alongside the blank editorial.

"The newspaper has exposed incidents of communal unrest that have taken place since the Congress government came to power, highlighting police failures and the state's inaction. It has reported on the demolition of an abandoned mosque in Chilkur, the removal of the dupatta from minority schoolgirls' uniforms, and the government's failure to protect Waqf properties. Munsif has also raised delayed salaries of imams and muezzins, non-payment of stipends for divorced women, and the Congress's failure to include a Muslim representative in the Telangana cabinet-just as it had criticized the Modi government for the same," read a statement by Ather Moin, the newspaper's Executive Editor, according to NDTV.

"If the Revanth government expects us to convince our readers that Telangana has turned into a land of milk and honey under Congress rule, then that is something we cannot do. Instead, we shall continue to ask: Why have lands turned barren? Why has starvation forced the poor to the brink? Why have helpless daughters been violated?" the statement further read.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Washington DC, in December, 2023, when he had stated, “Freedom of press is under threat in India, and the world can see it,” the daily wrote that his own party was strangling the press in Telangana.

“Perhaps the authorities thought they could force Munsif into submission by cutting off this financial lifeline…We have neither surrendered nor reduced our coverage… As a mark of protest against this unjust treatment, today’s editorial is intentionally left blank,” stated the newspaper.

The feature claimed that the government decided to hurt it financially as Indira Gandhi had done during Emergency because it could not stop the newspaper from divulging the truth.

"In 1975, Indira Gandhi tried to silence the press-and failed. Today, her party is repeating history. But let it be known: The pen is still mightier than the sword. Journalism in India will not be silenced," it added.

Meanwhile, a Congress spokesperson told NDTV that state government has cut down on spending on newspaper advertisements and it was government's prerogative of who they want to support.