India, Sept. 14 -- Akhilesh Yadav now speaks of protecting a journalist's right to ask questions. If a reporter cannot put a question, he says, a press conference should not be called a press conference at all; it should be called a "press monologue." The line is agreeable to the ear. The question it cannot evade is what the condition of journalists was when Akhilesh Yadav was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.Did reporters then enjoy the full freedom to ask? Were those who put the government to an uncomfortable question safe? Did the conduct of the government and the party organisation towards the press, under the SP regime, resemble the speeches Akhilesh Yadav now delivers?One need not travel far back for an answer. Shahjahanpur in 2015, ...