The publisher of an Indian school textbook that included a picture of Jesus Christ with a beer can and cigarette said the image was taken from the Internet and used by mistake, a report said Wednesday. The picture was discovered in a handwriting book for children in church-run schools in the Christian-majority northeastern state of Meghalaya where it was used to illustrate the letter "I" for the word "Idol."
"It was a human error," Inder Mohan Jha, director of the New Delhi-based Skyline Publications, told the Indian Express newspaper, blaming it on a design agency tasked with the layout and contents of the book.
"They seem to have lifted an offensive photo off the Internet," he added.
A court has issued an arrest warrant against him for offending religious sentiment. The incident also drew condemnation from Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Monday.
The Roman Catholic Church in India has banned all textbooks by Skyline, while Protestant leaders called for a public apology.
"I apologise for my mistake. I have tendered my apology with a local newspaper," in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, he was quoted as saying.
Jha said the books, 200 of which were distributed in December in Shillong, were part of a lot of 1,200. The other books had not been distributed.
"It was my first published set of books," he said, adding he had started his Skyline company only four months ago.
The newspaper said Jha declined to disclose his location, only saying he was not in New Delhi and would return to the Indian capital in a few days.
Christians account for 2.3 percent of India's billion-plus Hindu-majority population. The main concentrations are in the northeast, the eastern state of Orissa and in the southern states of Kerala and Goa.
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