College magazine with anti-Modi remarks withdrawn

Guruvayur (Ker), June 16: Faced with legal action and protests from BJP, the Sree Krishna College here today withdrew its campus magazine which contained unsavoury remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A meeting of the College Staff Council, which took the decision, also decided to recall the copies of the magazine already distributed to students, college authorities said. Nine students of the college, including its student editor and editorial panel members, were arrested and let off on bail yesterday.

They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot). Police registered the case against these students as the magazine was found to have used "objectionable and unsavoury" language against Modi, garbed as a crossword puzzle.

The Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple Managing Committee, which runs the college, had sought an explanation from the principal in connection with the case. BJP's youth outfit Yuva Morcha took out a march to the college demanding strong action in the case.

This was the second such case reported from the area after the campus magazine of a polytechnic featured Modi in the list of "negative faces" along with Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, George Bush and a few other internationally-known figures.

The principal and a few students of the polytechnic were arrested and let off on bail last week after police had charged them under the same sections of the IPC.

PTI