Christians angered over Jesus’ picture holding beer

January 22, 2013: Christians in Maharashtra State, Western India, are angered over a 2013 calendar showing Jesus Christ holding a cigarette and a beer. Stating that their religious sentiments had been "insulted", they urged the state government to initiate action in this regard. "This blasphemous picture has been printed in December and around 30,000 of these offensive copies have already been circulated in the market," said Joseph Dias, president of Catholic Secular Forum (CSF).

Dias said that lawyers Vikram E. Amolik and Pankaj K. Bhandari have filed private criminal complaints regarding the calendar before a Pune court and the matter is expected to come up for hearing soon. Tanaji D. Lonkar, a former Shiv Sena municipal corporator, purportedly published a calendar with the "offensive" picture of Jesus Christ.

However, Lonkar has sought to dissociate himself from the issue, saying the printer had downloaded the image from internet. Lonkar said that he has withdrawn the calendar. Dias threatened to launch an agitation unless the state government acted immediately and brought the culprits to book.

In another instance, a post on social networking website Facebook showing Mother Mary ordering Christ to "clean up" has angered the community. In the post, Mother Mary is depicted saying: "Jesus! Look at this mess! Clean up your room now!" "When there were objections to the post, the author apologised, but in a very nasty manner, which made it even worse," Dias added.