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Hyderbarad, 27th June, 1891..
The Home Secretary's Gagging Circular has borne fruit already. The Shaukat-ul-Islam, an Urdu paper published within the Moglai limits, has been suppressed for refusing to sign the agreement sent round and commenting thereon in strong, but by no means undeserved terms. This action on the part of the Mushtak-Mehdi Hussan Government, their organ attempts to justify in its issue of yesterday's date. And this is its justification." To "our" notions the circular might be "bad law"—that does not matter—but the punishment inflicted on the Editor who refused to obey it is quite legal for in the absence of any Press Act the sovereign authority which grants a license to start a paper can revoke it if it likes, and the refusal to obey an order must needs be punished. I wonder how the punishment is "legal." Did the circular—I mean "the bad law"—declare that refusal to sign the agreement which seeks to enslave the Press or rather public opinion, on the part of any Editor, would be followed by the suppression of his paper? is every means resorted to by an administration to provide against any ugly exposure, "legal"? The present Government has in season and out of season claimed to be the best Government Hyderabad has had, has ever professed to be actuated by nothing but considerations for the well-being of the people and has always declared itself to be ready to turn itself inside out if necessary to prove its honesty of purpose. How the measure promulgated by the circular which no previous Government found it necessary to adopt, and the punishment inflicted on the independent man who refused to be "muzzled" thereby—are consistent with this claim, this profession and this declaration, I wish to know, If it is true that every line that appears in the local papers or in the mofussil ones on Hyderabad affairs is translated into Urdu by an establishment kept up for the purpose for the benefit of His Excellency the Minister, I wish he would see an explanation for this glaring inconsistency furnished to the public.
I hitherto gave the Nawab Mehdi Hussan credit for keen-sightedness, but I see now that I was mistaken. He seems to
