National Herald

Rahul Gandhi

Jawaharlal Nehru

Subramanian Swamy

Sonia Gandhi

Associated Journals Ltd

The Congress high command has dictated subscription targets to all the state units for the Congress-run's monthly magazine slated to launch in August.During its launch on June 12 in Bengaluru, Congress vice-presidentin his speech had said that he has told National Herald editor Neelab Mishra during a recent meeting that there might be times when the paper would want to write things against him or his party or its policies, but “you (editor) should be absolutely comfortable. That is the spirit we expect from National Herald."Each annual subscription costs Rs 1000. The internal target, as per sources is to have about 35000 subscribers before its launch.Congress at present has governments in five states including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya and Mizoram. And in Bihar it is part of the ruling coalition.The targets are set up as per the number of strength of district committees and members of Pradesh congress committees of each state. There was a proposal initially to send a written communiqué to the state units asking them to get subscriptions, however later senior leaders decided that they will simply be forward the subscription forms and gently nudged to do it.According to sources however there has been a less than lukewarm response from states. Barring a handful of states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Assam none of the states have bothered to even reply to the headquarter's request. A total of 1500-1000 subscription cheques have landed with National Herald."Well it's our publication and during the meetings we have said that it should be encouraged,” AICC secretary incharge of Andhra and Telangana RC Kuntia said. Andhra PCC President N Raghuveera Reddy too confirmed that they have forwarded and filled “few” subscription forms. “We were told only recently that we should help National Herald. We are seeing what we can do,” Reddy told Mirror.Haryana PCC President Ashok Tanwar denied that there were are any targets to follow. “I am not aware of any targets. However, it is a publication that follows our ideology so it is but natural that we will subscribe to it,” he said.Election bound states like Karnataka are irritated with high command for engaging them in what they believe is a futile exercise. "At a time when we should be concentrating on cadre-building exercise they want to us to go around marketing National Herald," a Karnataka Congress leader said.National Herald editor Neelabh Mishra denied any knowledge of subscription targets. “I have no idea, I am hearing from you. My role is strictly limited to editorial side of the publication,” Mishra told Mirror.Herald was founded by former Prime Ministerin 1938 and the publication was suspended a few years ago. The National Herald website was launched eight months ago. Efforts to revive the newspaper started amid a legal battle launched by BJP leader, who filed a criminal complaint against Congress president, Rahul Gandhi and others.In his private criminal complaint, Swamy has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds through(AJL) that owns National Herald.