Copies of the latest Nepal magazine with a sketch of Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli captioned Comrade Bahubali (strongman) on the cover have been burnt in Hetauda on Sunday.
The June 2 edition of the magazine published by Kanitpur Publications had published four stories with one of the headlines titled '21 incidents show Oli has unlimited thirst for power.'
Cadres of the ruling CPN have been criticizing the cover sketch even on the social media since it was revealed. CPN cadres now have burnt copies of Nepal at Hetauda. "They had burnt the magazines on Sunday. I was informed only on Monday," editor of the magazine Basanta Basnet told Setopati. "The incident of burning magazines is sad in itself."
He pointed that the magazines were burnt without taking the legal measures in case of grievances against anything published in the magazine. "Putting a little creative cover on the magazine is an international practice and not just ours," he stated. "We have published many such covers in the past. We had even published a cover showing suruwal of Sher Bahadur Deuba down below the knees."
He clarified that the recent cover sketch was not published for character assassination of anyone. "We had only prepared a creative sketch," he argued.
He said the identity of those who burnt the magazines has yet to be known but claimed that they are cadres of ruling party. "One of those who burnt the magazines was a former journalist," he revealed.
He said the magazine has been criticized since revealing the cover of the latest edition. "I take this normally. Some have even phoned us and said very negative things."
