The Chief Commissioner’s appeal

TO all patriotic and self-respecting Indians, it must be a matter of the deepest regret that it has been necessary for the Chief Commissioner of Delhi to address a letter to the editors of all local newspapers. Whether the letter will serve the purpose which the Chief Commissioner has in view, it is not easy to say. Nor is it easy to understand why, if the Chief Commissioner really believes that such letters do serve a useful purpose, he did not address it before, instead of after, the riots. It is a matter of common knowledge that then as now the tone of certain newspapers was highly objectionable. It was made a subject of bitter comment by at least one distinguished leader of the people, who actually made it a matter of complaint against the Government that while it made free use of Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, it had allowed Section 153-A to become a dead letter. It is also to be remembered that the air had for some time been thick with rumours about impending troubles at Delhi in connection with the Id celebration. Had the Government issued the warning to the newspapers concerned and all others in the same position a week before the Id celebration, its action might have had some effect in the direction of minimising the chances of a collision, and would certainly have been intelligible. After all, the maintenance of peace and order between different sections of the people is one of its paramount duties and constitutes an essential part of its raison d’etre. No action that it may take in this regard, provided it does not interfere with the just rights or the lawful liberty of any community and is not calculated to defeat its own purpose, can fail to commend itself to right-thinking persons.