Mangaluru: Star of Mysore, an evening daily of Mysuru, has apologized on its front page on April 10, for indirectly comparing a particular community to "rotten apples" and for seemingly calling for getting “rid” of them.
There was widespread outrage about the objectionable content published in the editorial titled, “Bad apples in the basket“ on April 6. Though the name of any community was not mentioned in the article, it pointed out costume, population percentage of a community and said, "These rotten apples spoil the rest of the good apples. An ideal solution to the problem created by bad apples is to get rid of them, as the former leader of Singapore did a few decades ago or as the leadership in Israel is currently doing.” With these words, the newspaper was accused of indirectly promoting ethnic cleansing.
While KB Ganapathy is the Editor in-Chief of Star of Mysore, M Govinde Gowda is the editor of the newspaper.
There was also a demand that the editors of such provocative editorials be immediately arrested. Siddharth KJ, Manavi Atri and Maitreyi Krishnan of The Campaign for Ethical Media Reporting issued a notice to the editors of the newspaper and asked to immediately seek apology over this objectionable editorial, otherwise legal action would be taken.
On Friday, the Star of Mysore apologized on its front page. “To our readers, an apology. Following the publication of the editorial titled ‘Bad apples in the basket’ … we learn that it has hurt the feelings of some of our readers. It was mainly focused on the spread of the deadly COVID-19. If it has hurt the sentiments and feelings of our readers by our lapse in judgments, SOM sincerely regrets and apologises for the same,” the editor said in the note.

On April 6th, an editorial in an English daily called the Star of Mysore - edited by KB Ganapathy- made a Nazi style, barely camouflaged call for the genocide of Muslims in India. No action whatsoever has been taken. Just another normal day for the Indian media. pic.twitter.com/b1KGFwpJWB
— Yeh Log ! (@yehlog) April 10, 2020
On April 6th, an editorial in an English daily called the Star of Mysore - edited by KB Ganapathy- made a Nazi style, barely camouflaged call for the genocide of Muslims in India. No action whatsoever has been taken. Just another normal day for the Indian media. pic.twitter.com/b1KGFwpJWB
— Yeh Log ! (@yehlog) April 10, 2020
@DCMysuru @Star_Of_Mysore is spreading communal hatred by publishing xenophobic articles. Please take action against the chief editor and editor of the evening daily. @cjwerleman @KhaledBeydoun @UNHumanRights @RanaAyyub @ashoswai @ReallySwara @fayedsouza @SaketGokhale
— Mubariz (@Muby) April 10, 2020
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Saharsa (PTI): More than 150 children were taken ill after allegedly consuming food that was part of the mid-day meal in a school in Bihar’s Saharsa district, a senior official said on Thursday.
The incident occurred at a middle school in Baluaha village of the district.
The official said that 115 children were undergoing treatment at the Sadar Hospital, while around 50 students were admitted to Mahishi Public Health Centre.
“We received information that several children fell ill after consuming the mid-day meal in Baluaha. The children were initially treated at the primary health centre, but later, many were referred to the Sadar Hospital,” Saharsa District Magistrate Deepesh Kumar told reporters.
“According to doctors, the health condition of the children has improved, but they will be kept under observation for some time. There is no need to panic. Some kids are having mild fever. They are being treated accordingly,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, family members of some children claimed that a snake was found in the container in which cooked pulses was stored at the school.
Of the 545 students present in the school, 200 had already eaten their meals by the time the snake was spotted, and later complained of stomach ache and vomiting, they said.
Regarding the claims, the DM said food samples have been collected from the school.
“We will be able to comment on this only after the results of the tested samples arrive,” he said.
