Hindus
are upset at the Hindu goddess Kali caricature in New Zealand’s leading
metropolitan daily newspaper The New Zealand Herald, which they found highly
insensitive.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a
statement in Nevada (USA) today, asked Herald Editor-in-Chief Tim Murphy and
Board Chairman of its parent APN News & Media Peter Cosgrove to immediately
apologize and publish the apology on the front page of the paper for this
trivialization of Hindu goddess. Moreover, Herald and other APN media outlets
should print/broadcast an introductory piece about Hinduism and its deities to
create better understanding in the society, Zed added.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of
Hinduism, pointed out that this goddess Kali image holding a pack of cigarettes
besides other objects was quite inappropriate and hurtful to the devotees.
Goddess Kali was highly revered in Hinduism and she was meant to be worshipped
in temples or home shrines and not to be trivialized in a reimagined version
for the commercial or other agenda of a newspaper.
Rajan Zed noted that the goddess illustration
accompanying the article titled “Guardians at the superette” by Dita De Boni in
Herald’s June 28 edition was offensive, disrespectful and irresponsible. Herald
should set up an internal structure so that unnecessary mistakes like this
should not happen in the future.
Zed urged New Zealand Race Relations
Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy and New Zealand Press Council Chairman Sir John
Hansen to look into the issue and discipline Herald for the insensitivity shown
to the Hindu community.
Rajan Zed stressed that Hindus were for free
speech as much as anybody else if not more. Hindu tradition encouraged peaceful
debates, won on their intellectual merit. But faith was something sacred and
attempts at belittling it hurt the devotees. Hindus welcomed media to immerse
in Hinduism but taking it seriously and respectfully and not for refashioning
Hinduism concepts and symbols for mercantile greed, Zed said.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest
religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical
thought and it should not be taken lightly. Symbols of any faith, larger or
smaller, should not be mishandled, Zed argued.
In 2010, a New Zealand TV presenter
reportedly made xenophobic remarks ridiculing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila
Dikshit and New Zealand Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand. New Zealand
Parliament refused to consider Zed’s request in 2008 to amend its prayer
procedure/structure for making it more inclusive and universal.
In addition to The New Zealand Herald, Sydney
(Australia) headquartered APN claims to be the largest operator of regional
newspapers, radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising in Australasia. Herald,
founded in 1863 and headquartered in Auckland, is claimed to have the largest
newspaper circulation of any in the country. APN’s Editorial Code of Ethics
states: “we undertake to maintain the highest ethical standard in our
journalism”.
Goddess Kali, who
personifies Sakti or divine energy, is widely worshipped in Hinduism. She is considered the goddess of time
and change. Some Bengali poets described her as supreme deity.
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