Source: HPI
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, June 4, 2002: The Financial Review’s editor, Glenn Burge, issued a formal apology today for a cartoon which ran in his newspaper. The cartoon (see HPI, May 29, 2009) showed a caricature of Lord Ganesha with four arms standing on a map of India. One hand juggled an atomic bomb, another sticks of dynamite, a third a chicken and the fourth gestured obscenely in the direction of Pakistan. The apology, direct to Dr. A. Balasubramaniam of the Hindu Council of Australia, who lodged the formal complaint with the paper reads: “I would like to formally apologize to you as chairman of the Hindu Council of Australia for the illustration that appeared in the Australian Financial Review by our cartoonist. I would appreciate it if you could circulate it to the broader Hindu community in Australia and internationally to acknowledge my sincere apology for the offense the illustration has caused to the community. As the apology notes, the misrepresentation of Ganesha in the illustration of the Kashmir conflict was not intended to insult the Hindu religion. As editor, I will ensure there will be no repeat of such an unfortunate incident.”