The Economic Times is an English-language, Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. first published in 1961. It has depicted caricatures of Deity Hanuman on the cross and Deity Vishnu rudely making a political statement, in cartoons published in their March 17, 2015 issue.
Alert Hindus notified Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) regarding this denigration of Deity Hanuman and Deity Vishnu. Accordingly, when Hindu Janajagruti Samiti wrote to The Economic Times, they sent a reply justifying how it is not denigration instead of rendering a public apology. The Samiti made a second appeal to them but there has been no response from them. (The letter explaining the denigration is published ahead on this page.)
Reference 2:
It is incorrect to publish such cartoons on political issues portraying a Deity in a disrespectful manner for commercial purposes. Portraying political figures or Hindu Deities correlate with other religion in this manner amounts to trivialization of the Deities.
We now request you to appeal lawfully and peacefully to stop this denigration. We also suggest you write to the publication team of The Economic Times, requesting them to stop this denigration.
Below are the email ids of the
publication team of The Economic Times:
[email protected],
[email protected]
Please see below the prior correspondence between HJS and The Editor of the Economic Times
From: Hindu Jagruti [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2015 9:41 PM
To: [email protected]; grievance.et
Subject: Denigration of Hindu Deities as cartoons in The Economic Times (issue of 17th March, 2015)
To,
Mr. Sumit Gulati
Grievance Officer
The Economic times
Dear Mr. Sumit ji,
Namaskar,
We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have received complaints from Hindus regarding the depiction of Deity Hanuman on cross and Deity Vishnu saying political quotes, in your cartoon in The Economic Times issue of March 17, 2015.
Reference 1:
Reference 2:
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is a registered NGO in India doing social, Hindu Dharma related and national welfare work. The Samiti is also active throughout the world, educating people about Hindu Dharma in a scientific way, campaigning against malpractices done as Hindu Dharma related practices and solving problems related to misrepresentation of Hindu Dharma. For further details please visit our website www.HinduJagruti.org.
The depiction of Hindu Deities in this manner is outrageous and insulting as it denigrates the Hindu Deities and Hinduism. Deity Hanuman and Shri Vishnu are highly revered Deities in Hinduism and Hindus worship Them with immense faith. Your depiction of Them in such manner has offended the religious sentiments of Hindus. Would you have published similar cartoons depicting prophets from other religions?
As per IPC 295 A (maliciously insulting a religion) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) is an offence and is punishable by law.
We would also request you to review any material to be published in the Economic Times at any future date to ensure that it is not offensive to the religious sentiments of the Hindus. HJS can help with the reviewing of such material if requested.
Based on the above, we ask you to remove these cartoons from your web pages immediately and render an unconditional apology to Hindus for publishing the same.
Sincerely,
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
Response from Grievance officer:
From: grievance.et <[email protected]>
Date: March 21, 2015 at 4:46:04 PM GMT+4
To: Hindu Jagruti <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Denigration of Hindu Deities as cartoons in The Economic Times (issue of 17th March, 2015)
Dear Concerned,
We have received your mail and we are looking into the matter.
Thanks,
Second response from Grievance Officer:
From: grievance.et <[email protected]
Date: Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 10:29 AM,
To: Hindu Jagruti <[email protected]>
Dear Concerned,
This has reference to your email dated 20th March’15 in connection with the cartoon published in Economic Times on 17th March’15.
The newspaper enjoys unstinted patronage from its loyal readers and is known for maintaining an impeccable standard of honest journalism and for fostering and implementing purely ethical and professional practices. The newspaper enjoys an exceptionally high and dignified position amongst its readers, for the authenticity of its news coverage and the unbiased manner of reporting. The company owing the newspaper is a responsible publishing house, having responsible journalists who are known for journalistic ethics and norms. The company has heritage of 176 years and believes in doing everything within its means to strengthen the rich and diverse society through responsible media coverage.
Since people in our country have diverse faiths and believe in different religions, therefore, we accord highest regard to respective faiths and beliefs of its valuable and esteemed readers. The newspaper has deepest respect for all communities and religions. As for any disrespect against any religion/community, the newspaper avowedly stands against such attitudes. Even otherwise, the newspaper is read by a wide cross section of people belonging to diverse religions from whom the newspaper draws an outstanding level of patronage. In such circumstances, it is anathema for the newspaper to display any disrespect towards any religion/community. In fact, the newspapers owned by the company celebrate major religious events of all faiths/religious communities by taking a special masthead.
The said picture was published purely as a work of art. It was an artist’s anguish at the occurrence of wanton incidents of vandalism of religious places of worship. The said cartoon was merely an artist’s satirical expression/anger that was not intended to hurt the religious feelings of anyone or to insult any community/religion or to show any disrespect to Lord Hanuman. In the aforesaid backdrop, it is noteworthy to reiterate that newspaper never had the intention to disregard the religious icon, Lord Hanuman or to outrage the feelings of any community or religion. The newspaper has great respect for faith and religious sentiments of its esteemed readers. In such circumstances, it would be presumptuous to draw negative inferences by adopting a narrow interpretation of an artist’s expression of condemnation of growing instances of religious intolerance in the society.
In view of journalistic ethics, the newspaper has already published a clarification on 17th April, 2015. A copy of the said clarification is enclosed with this reply. As stated before, it was never the intention of newspaper to show disrespect to Lord Hanuman or to hurt religious sentiments of any community. The newspaper sincerely believes that on publication of the said clarification, it has addressed your grievance.
Kindly appreciate that newspaper has carried the cartoon without any ill will or intention to hurt the feelings of any community or religion or to show any disrespect/disregard to Lord Hanuman and has carried clarification in its newspaper. By virtue of publication of the said clarification in the newspaper on 17th April, 2014, the email is deemed to be withdrawn by you and we believes that your grievance is duly addressed and resolved.
This reply is sent without prejudice to rights and contentions of company/newspaper/its officials and nothing contained in this reply shall be deemed an admission of any fact or a waiver of any of the rights or remedies in connection with the email/cartoon, whether at law or in equity, all of which rights and remedies are hereby expressly reserved.
Thanks,
Grievance Officer
Response from Hindu Janajagruti Samiti:
From: Hindu Jagruti <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: Denigration of Hindu Deities as cartoons in The Economic Times (issue of 17th March, 2015)
To: “grievance.et” <[email protected]>
To,
Mr. Sumit Gulati
Grievance Officer
The Economic times
Namaskar.
This is in reference to the clarification statement on the denigration of the Deities Hanuman and Vishnu, published in The Economic Times April 17th 2015 Issue and in your letter sent to us on April 24th 2015.
Thank you for sending a prompt reply, but sadly you have not addressed the issue raised by us.
Your newspaper has hurt the feelings of the large (close to 100 crore) Hindu community and instead of publishing an apology, you have just clarified it. We don’t need a clarification or the reason of publishing the denigrating cartoons. For Hindus, Lord Hanuman and Lord Vishnu are God. We do pooja and pray to them. If your newspaper wants to portray something, God is not responsible for it. Then why was God defamed?
So we feel that you should publish an apology for the sin committed by you. Please render a sincere apology publicly in your next issue or to us in writing. Otherwise we are left with no option but going for legal action against you. As per the IPC 295 A (maliciously insulting a religion) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion), the denigration in The Economic Times is an offence.
Please acknowledge this letter and inform us in writing about the action being taken by you.
Sincerely,
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
www.HinduJagruti.org
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