The head of another reputed international news magazine says he faces the “rubber stamping” almost with every single issue. His predecessor is reported to have taken up the issue with officials concerned but it didn’t help.

In New Delhi, the process starts at the Indira Gandhi International terminal’s cargo shed. The Joint Commissioner, Cargo, heads a 40-member team with an Inspector and Superintendent who have been deputed the job of checking all printed material for anything that may be “inflammatory” or any representation of India in maps which is considered “incorrect”.

In case of any “offensive” representation, the clearing agent of the magazine’s publishing house in India is called to the Customs office. The consignment is opened, and each map in every single copy is then stamped.

While cargo sections at the airports in Delhi and Mumbai carry out this exercise zealously, it is not followed so strictly in smaller cities. To convey its frustration, The Economist, in its edition dated September 5, 2007, published a piece titled “No cartographical conspiracy here” under a section titled “No offence” in its “Asia View” section. (The magazine has an editorial arrangement with The Indian Express.)

“There is no surer way for The Economist’s Asia section to cause offence than to publish a map. Almost any cartographic representation of the continent is bound to upset some individual reader or government. Alas, we use maps not to portray the world as it ought to be, or even as we would like it to be, but as it is,” it said.

... contd.