Railway passengers from Bengaluru Friday found copies of an unauthorized publication with controversial articles on the Shatabdi Express to Chennai, prompting the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to issue a warning to its onboard services licensee.
The Bengaluru-based publication, Aryavarth Express, carried articles titled “Genocide of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, under Islamic rule needs to be recognised” and “UN should label Aurangzeb as perpetuator of holocaust like Hitler” on its front page, among others.
The licensee for the train, PK Shefi, told that the paper got circulated as a supplement inserted by the vendor into the approved newspapers. But a passenger who found the paper tweeted that it was not an “insert”.
IRCTC subsequently deleted its tweets. When asked about this, a spokesman cited the use of the word “counselled” which did not convey the right meaning. He also said the company is looking into how the newspapers got inserted into the approved papers.
The Divisional Railway Manager of Bengaluru also instructed his team to take action on the matter.
