KSU demands apology

Students ‘hurt’ by offensive picture of Christ, says union

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Shillong, Feb. 19: The Khasi Students Union today asked Skyline Publishers to tender an unconditional apology to the student community in Meghalaya and the union for hurting their sentiments by depicting Jesus Christ with a cigarette and beer can in textbooks for junior classes. The KSU also threatened to resort to its “own course of action” if the Delhi-based publishers failed to apologise to the student community. Meghalaya police yesterday confiscated a large number of cursive writing exercise copies and textbooks published by Skyline Publication, Delhi, that carry these pictures . The general secretary of the students’ union, Hamlet Dohling, told this correspondent that a mere apology from the Delhi-based publishers to the religious community was not enough. “We represent the students and the publishers should tender an apology to the students of Meghalaya in general and the KSU in particular,” he said. The students’ union said the textbooks were meant for children and such a wrong characterisation of Christ would affect young minds. “The misinformation spread by the wrongly-printed pictures of Jesus is a serious offence as it will malign the minds of young students,” Dohling said. The KSU urged the government to blacklist the publishers and not to allow sale of their books in Meghalaya. The Federation of Khasi,Jaintia and Garo People said there was no other way but blacklisting the publishers to prevent a repetition of the mistake. It added that the government should ban the publishers from distributing any textbooks in Meghalaya. “We will also write to the state government to seize the remaining copies of the textbook available in the market,” its president Emlang Lyttan said. Synjkuk ki Seng Samla Shnong, a Shillong-based NGO, also wanted the government to blacklist the publishers as wrong representation of Christ had hurt the sentiments of all. The North East India Christian Council has asked the publishers of the books to issue an unqualified apology for hurting the religious sentiments of the people. Archbishop Dominic Jala said today he had spoken to all bishops and a meeting would be held in Guwahati on February 24 to discuss the matter, among others. “We will take necessary steps after the meeting and the matter will also be discussed by the education commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India,” he said.