71 SOCIAL SCIENTIST flaring up of communal passions and rioting. In the Ahmedabad-Bombay belt riots took place after the editor of 'MarmicK commented that the chowk should be purified after the dalits had polluted it. P. Sainath was thus of the opinion that the corporatisation of press was causing the decline of liberal journalism and its place was being taken by the communal press sponsored by communal organisations. Any issue connected with the VHP was front page news in these newspapers. Similarly the Shiv Sena newspapers daily report the statements made by Bal Thackeray. What is more disturbing is that none of the major national dailies respond to this rhetoric and criticise it. The need of the hour was thus to face the threat posed by this communalizatioil of the newspapers and to build a little space in the public sphere to counter this development. SRIMANJARI