College mag caught in row over poem and articles

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

A college in North Kerala is caught in a row over its decision not to permit printing of a magazine being brought out by its students as it contains a poem allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Christian community.

According to authorities of the christian management-run college at Wayanad, the draft copy of the magazine contains not only a four-line poem, which was "highly objectionable," but also has certain articles which can cause "difficulties" to some people.

"A four-member editorial board has been constituted which will see if there are any objectionable contents in the magazine," college principal A O Roy told PTI.

Roy said the magazine cannot be brought out in the name of the college and the institution also cannot take any responsibility for it.

B P Shahul Hameed, the magazines student editor, said permission was not granted by the college which objected to the four-line poem written by one of the students.

"We do not see anything objectionable in the poem, which was intended to highlight current social issues," he said.

"Everybody knows what the issue is...when the magazine was ready, it was chief editor, A O Roy, who is the college principal, who objected to certain words in the poem and said it was not possible to publish it in the magazine," he said.

The poem apparently refers to a recent incident of an alleged sexual assault of a minor girl in Kerala by a priest after which she delivered a child.

"The magazine has been banned now. But we have got the full support of the student community," Hameed said.

The decision to include the poem in the magazine was taken by the editorial board, which comprises students from various religious background and political parties, he said.

"We are firm that the poem should be part of the magazine," he added.

The row comes close on the heels of the protest by right-wing activists against 'Meesha', a novel by S Hareesh as it allegedly contains anti-Hindu and anti-women references.