A monthly catholic community magazine carrying an image of Jesus Christ holding a beer can in one hand and a cigarette in the other in its February issue caused outrage amongst subscribers of the journal. The image was a tweaked version of the Christ and the sacred heart reported Times of India.
The magazine, Pavan Hruday Doot, is printed at the Gujarat Sahitya Prakash Society in Anand town, which is the publishing house of the catholic Jesuit community for South Asia. The magazine is an official mouthpiece of Catholics in Gujarat.
Three days ago, one of the subscribers in Vatva area;s Vatican Park society, Manoj Mackwan, felt outraged after seeing the picture on page 30 of the magazine and registered a police complaint with the Anand town police. A case under section 295 and 153(3) of the IPC was registered by the police and is being investigated by Anand town police inspector PK Deora.
When asked about the FIR, Deora told TOI, “A case of hurting religious sentiments has been registered. Last evening, I received a memorandum by the Christian community members in Anand apologizing on behalf of the publication. The image was small in size and black and white in nature and was downloaded from the internet. It was a tweaked version of the most common image that we see of the Christ. The publishers had claimed that they failed to notice the beer can and the cigarette in Christ’s hand as it was not clearly visible in black and white.”
The publisher and the 12 member editorial staff, which includes two priests, have now apologized for the mistake. The publishing house has even carried an apology on their website on Thursday.