Janmabhumi, the Kerala daily associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, inadvertently printed the editorial page of Chandrika, the Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) newspaper, on New Year’s Day. The mix-up, confined to the Kannur and Kasaragod district editions, surprised readers and provoked a flurry of local reaction.
The mistake came to light when IUML state president Syed Sadiq Ali Shahab Thangal received a phone call from a Kannur party worker informing him that an opinion page attributed to Chandrika had appeared in Janmabhumi. Initially sceptical, Mr Thangal later confirmed the report and described the incident as an unexpected New Year surprise that nevertheless reached a broader readership than usual.
Kerala newspaper printing error prompts production review
Janmabhumi’s Kannur bureau chief Ganesh Mohan said the error occurred at a private computer-to-plate (CTP) facility used to prepare printing plates for both newspapers. According to the bureau, the Chandrika editorial plate was inadvertently sent with Janmabhumi’s plates during the transfer process, resulting in the editorial appearing on page four of the Janmabhumi edition.
The pages that ran included the Chandrika masthead and imprint line, along with three opinion pieces by Sadiq Ali Shahab Thangal, M. K. Munir and Muhammad Sha. The articles, which touched on topics including reflections ahead of 2025 and commentary on cultural and regional events, did not contain direct criticism of the BJP, a fact some local party adherents noted with relief.
Janmabhumi officials characterised the incident as a production lapse caused by human and procedural error at the CTP centre, where digital page files are routed directly to printing plates without an intermediate film stage. The publication said it would review checks with the centre to prevent recurrence.
Reactions varied. An IUML worker and Chandrika editor Kamal Vardooru both described the episode in upbeat terms. Mr Thangal said he was pleased that the party reached additional readers and called the event an amusing start to the year. Mr Vardooru described the incident as unexpected promotion from a rival newspaper and said their editorial had reached a wider audience.
Some readers and media commentators, however, used the incident to highlight the need for tighter quality controls in regional news production. Errors in print operations, they say, are not unusual, but the publication of a rival party’s editorial page is an uncommon lapse in journalistic practice.
Local BJP workers noted that fortune favoured them because the Chandrika editorial did not include material directly targeting the BJP. Nevertheless, Janmabhumi’s statement acknowledged the seriousness of the production oversight and promised corrective measures at the CTP facility in Kannur.
While no political fallout has followed the incident, the episode underlines the operational risks in fast-moving print production and the reputational sensitivities of party-affiliated newspapers. Both publications have treated the matter lightly in public comments, but officials on both sides indicated they would treat the issue as a lesson in production safeguards going forward.
Key Takeaways:
- Janmabhumi, a Kerala BJP mouthpiece, accidentally printed an editorial page from IUML’s Chandrika on New Year’s Day.
- The error occurred at a private CTP centre in Kannur where plate files for both papers were mixed.
- IUML and Chandrika officials downplayed the gaffe, calling it unexpected publicity and noting no hostile content appeared.
- Janmabhumi has attributed the mistake to a production mix-up and said steps will be taken to prevent recurrence.
