This is the incident that took place during the time when newspapers like Pioneer & Leader were sold for 1 Anna and Áaj came at price tag of 2 paisa.
Manmohan Gupt, born in 1912 in Banaras, took out a handwritten newspaper- Kranti Ki Pukaar in 1926. This fourteen old child editor had to toil hard to sell its copies (4 anna each) due to great danger of being caught by the police. Yes, press was not free.
Many times copy of this 2 page illustrated newspaper were sent to Mahatma Gandhi, on which Bapu gave advice to the young revolutionaries in newapaper edited by him, but did not name them. Young Manmohan used to travel from Banaras to Allahabad on his cycle to deliver 2 page newspaper to regular clients like Shiv Prasad Gupt-owner of Aaj newspaper, Ramrikh Sahgal- editor of Chand’. They used to patronize this handwritten newspaper and used to give Rs 5-25 for its copy.
But this was the first time Manmohan went to Anand Bhawan to sell his copy. He had 4 copies hidden under his waist-coat. Pt. Motilal Nehru first arranged for his bath & refreshments and then asked him a number of questions- number of copies, price, distribution etc. He advised this young editor to travel by rail (not by bicycle) to Allahabad to sell a copy to him and assured him to bear all travel expenses. He bought all four copies & gave the young editor Rs. 25 for them. Now the number of pages increased to 4 with better ink and paper. During winter of 1927, Pt. Motilal Nehru came to Banaras along with Mahatma Gandhi & Madan Mohan Malviya, he gave Rs. 100 for two issues of Kranti ki Pukaar.
Unfortunately, the artists of this paper were caught and money was required to fight their case. So, Manmohan took out a one page newspaper and went to Anand Bhawan. There, Pt. Motilal told Jawaharlal Nehru – “Look there he is” and went out. Jawaharlal Nehru questioned Manmohan on about revolutionary efforts. Young Manmohan argued and cited examples of several countries like Italy, Russia, Mexico, China etc and also criticized Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts. He concluded- “Neither can Gandhi nor 2-4 young people like us can get Swaraj”. Jawaharlal Nehru gave this young editor a patient hearing, by this time Pt Motilal Nehru returned . Manmohan gave him a copy of Kranti ki Pukaar and took his blessings. Pt Motilal gave this young editor Rs. 500 for a copy of his handwritten newspaper- “Kranti ki Pukaar’.