'Alambardar' promoted by Civil Aviation Minister C.M. Ibrahim, has folded up as he was unable to sustain it any longer after he was stripped of the Information portfolio.

Mr. Ibrahim had diverted Government advertisements to his Urdu newspaper by misusing his position as Information Minister though the publication was very irregular and had limited readership.

Alambardar, which means flag-bearer, was started by Mr. Ibrahim in 1983 in Bangalore, but closed down two years later. He revived it again in 1995 after he was handpicked by the then Chief Minister H.D. Deve Gowda to head the state unit of the Janata Dal.

Mr. Ibrahim ... used his newspaper to project his image. After he became the Information Minister ... Most of the local Urdu newspapers which had existed for decades, were starved of Government advertisements at the expense of Alambardar.

With revenue pouring in, Alambardar turned into a bilingual daily with four pages each of Urdu and Kannada. (It is alleged that) Ibrahim misused his clout as Information Minister to pressurise television film producers to make donations to the Alambardar Publications.

Abbas Ali Bohra, a builder, who had been roped in by Ibrahim to edit Alambardar, was not willing to run the show as Ibrahim had gone back on his promise to make Bohra an MLC (and to provide funds for the paper).

Sources close to Bohra said he spent up to Rs. 15 lakh from his pocket to sustain the newspaper even after Ibrahim was relieved from the Information portfolio in the hope that he would be given an important post in the Janata Dal ... The Kannada scction of the newspaper disappeared on June 8. Subsequently, the Urdu section was also wound up last week ..

Bohra (had) joined Ibrahim's bandwagon after quitting his post as State BJP Minoritics Wing President, following the promises held out by the Union Minister. When contacted, Bohra told The Pioneer that he was planning to start an Urdu eveninger ...                   (Source: The Pioneer)