Amid court battle with BJP, Congress to relaunch 'National Herald' today

Bengaluru: The Congress Party will relaunch the National Herald newspaper here on Monday, which was founded by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Vice President Hamid Ansari will launch a commemorative edition of the National Herald to mark the 70th year of Independence, in the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at Ambedkar Bhavan on Millers Road here.

This event will be followed by an official launch of the edition and formal print re-launch of the newspaper in New Delhi on June 20 by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The paper will be published weekly from the National Capital.

The online web edition 'Nationalherald.com' has been functional since last year and is being headed by Neelabh Misra as editor.

The print edition of the newspaper was originally launched from Lucknow September 9, 1938, whose editor at that time was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, but it was later shut down in 2008 due to financial constraints.

The newspaper has been headline after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy filed a case against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Congress Treasurer Motilal Vora, Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda.

Swamy's application alleges that the Congress granted an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), owner of the National Herald newspaper, adding that the Congress did bungling in the loan and it was not repaid in cash.

Swamy further alleged that Sonia and Rahul were made directors of a company- Young Indian- in November 2010, which acquired almost all the shareholding of AJL and all its properties, reportedly worth Rs 5,000 crore.