NEW DELHI, India, Oct. 29, Reuter: Striking printers on Thursday prevented journalists on an antigovernment newspaper from breaking a strike they said Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had ordered to gag criticism.
The journalists, who pushed past pickets outside the Indian Express office of Wednesday behind a line of cane-wielding police, printed several thousand copies of the paper but the strikers prevented them from being distributed.
Editor Arun Shourie said the Express would not come out in Delhi until further notice because of inadequate security for distribution, it will continue printing in other Indian cities.
Ten people were injured in clashes between police and strikers when Shourie led more than 200, journalists office staff and opposition party supporters through the district.
Printers at other newspapers stopped work to protest against Shourie’s action, depriving the capital of seven leading dailies on Thursday.
Sourie told reporters the stoppage was engineered by Gandhi but printers denied this, saying they were striking for more money.
The Express, India’s biggest English language paper, has focused on a series of scandals this year in which the government has been accused of taking bribes in defence contracts including a 1.3 billion dollar order for Howitzers from ‘Sweden’s Bofors company.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 6, 1987
