College mag with "objectionable content" against PM withheld

Thrissur (Ker), Aug 6: A college magazine in Kerala carrying some adverse remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi was withheld from circulation after the printing press noticed the objectionable content and refused to part with it.

Angered over this, a group of students belonging to the CPI(M)'s student's wing Students Federation of India (SFI) protested, but the printing press management refused to budge.

The magazine with the title 'Puram Modi" was sponsored by the volunteers of SFI in Maharajas Technical Institute. The press management noticed a photo and an article that showed Modi in poor light and refused to hand over the printed copies to the students.

"The students came to us with a request to urgently print 300 copies of the college magazine for the year 2014. The article on Modi was noticed when the copies were being packed", owner of the press James told PTI.

"I told them that the copies will not be released as it contained remarks against Modi, who is the Prime Minister of the country", he said, adding, the students threatened that he would have to compensate them, to which he said he would gladly do so.

When contacted, the college authorities said the magazine was brought out by the students on their own as the institution had refused permission to publish it last year itself. The college has nothing to do with that now, the official said, adding, fund for printing the magazine was raised by the students themselves.

Meanwhile, police said that they were looking into the matter. Twice last year, principals of two different colleges in Thrissur district and some students had courted controversy after college magazines with some objectionable contents had been published.

On June 16, 2014, police had registered a case against the Principal and 11 students of Sree Krishna College at Guruvayur after its campus magazine was found to be having "objectionable and unsavoury" language against Modi.

This was close on the heels of the Principal and six students of Government Polytechnique at Kunnamkulam being arrested for adding Modi's photograph in the college magazine under the list of "negative" face along with Adolf Hitler, George Bush and forest brigand Veerapan.

PTI