Is there any uniform advertisement policy for the organs of CPI(M)? We see that the central government ads on achievements of two years of Modi government have been published in various state Party organs even sparing full page of the paper. The contents of the advertisement which are always rejected by the Party in its day-to-day campaign, are given space in the Party organs. Doesn’t it create confusion among the common readers or common Party supporters who like to see that the Party organ does not carry anything contrary to the ideological stand of the Party? Haripada Das, Agartala The question of taking government advertisements by the daily newspapers run by the Party was settled a long time ago. Party dailies carry advertisements of both central and state governments concerned. Daily newspapers run by the Party have to earn revenue to sustain the paper and one of the main avenues is advertisements. Advertisements from government sources is one stream in that. The Party is opposed to the basic policies pursued by the present central government; it has been so with almost all the central governments in the past. But this cannot be the basis for a policy not to take ads from the central government. The same approach applies to advertisements from the state government. The newspaper is free to editorially criticise the policies of the government or carry articles and analysis which is critical of the government’s policies and stand. A daily newspaper is supposed to give a comprehensive coverage of different political developments and views. Paid advertisements containing publicity material for the government cannot be construed as an endorsement by the newspaper of the government’s policies and measures. The reader of the Party newspaper can easily understand the distinction between an advertisement and the paper’s views on the matter. If the approach is to not accept any government advertisement, the same argument would then extend to taking advertisements from multinational companies and the big corporates for selling their products. While this is the general approach, the Party dailies will not carry an advertisement if, for example, it takes an anti-worker position during a strike or struggle. The Party daily will also not carry any advertisement from a private company which contains material against the interests of its workers or employees. While this is the norm for Party dailies, journals run by the Party for propagating ideological and political views can adopt a more discriminating advertisement policy.