India in ancient times was known as a land of wonders and fantastic fiction. Indian fairy tales are full of poetic charm.

We regret that we cannot say the same about the latest fantasy product of some Indian newspapers. Yes, this is also a fairy tale, but there is no charm in it. Yes, this is fiction, but there is not a single gram of poetry in it but there are tons of vile forgery.

This tale was told on December 31 in English in India by the newspaper National Herald (Delhi), and this tale was told by the Lahore correspondent of the newspaper Nationalist, also in English. And a certain unknown soldier told this tale to the Lahore correspondent. Apparently, he speaks the language of Hearst. This language of the newspaper tribe of shameless liars, as we see, is beginning to penetrate into the political jungle of India. We deplore such a decline in the level of spiritual nourishment of the Indian reading public: they are being bundled with utter nonsense, they are being fed with rotten canned food of anti-Soviet propaganda.

The story goes basically like this.

The famous underbaked quisling of India, the notorious Subhas Chandra Bose, who was first kept by the Nazis in Berlin, and then by the Japanese imperialists in Tokyo, allegedly fled to Russia! Here he allegedly has been since the surrender of Japan, along with “his soldiers of the Indian National Army, who were captured by the Russian armies.” This fascist rogue allegedly freely roams the Soviet country and inspects his 300,000-strong army!

The invention doesn’t stop there. The unknown soldier, it turns out, “knows” that responsible representatives of the Soviet government spoke to Bose, who allegedly gave the Hindu-fascist adventurer mythical “concrete promises”.

Such is the silly tale of an unnamed soldier and two named newspapers. The tale will not enter into Indian folklore, because it has nothing in common with folk art. This is the handicraft of dishonest newspaper buffoons, endowed with not so much ardent as dirty fantasy.

The miserable comedians from the booths of the press themselves know very well that Bose and the Bose-likes can find refuge and acclimatize under any reactionary latitude, only the Soviet climate cannot be endured by any fascist aftermath. It is known that the Nazis tried to escape to almost all countries of the world if only to get away from Moscow!

Fans of fairy tales say: don’t like it don’t listen, but do not interfere with lying. But fairy tales are different. It is not pleasant for honest people to listen to a fairy tale-slander. In the interests of peace and friendship between peoples, it is necessary to interfere with newspaper lies.

We contribute to the dissemination of useful information for the Indian reading public when we establish with perfect accuracy that the newspapers National Herald and Nationalist under the guise of a newspaper establishment sell shameless anti-Soviet lies.

International law, although not on paper, punishes the contraband poisoning of the peoples of the East with opium. Unfortunately, the poisoning of peoples with paper lies has not yet been banned by peace-loving nations. Meanwhile, it would be necessary to strictly and even more strictly judge the newspaper gangsters exposed in lies and forgery.

Pravda, January 7th, 1946
Translated by P. Brik

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