We carried a ‘jacket' on Monday in our Tamil Nadu editions that featured a message — laid out in the form of an in-house advertisement — to readers on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya on behalf of “ The Hindu” .
Neither I, as Editor of The Hindu , nor anyone from the editorial side, was involved in the drafting of this message. Nor did we know of, let alone approve, its contents.
For the record, it is not The Hindu' s editorial position that Akshaya Tritiya, an occasion that has risen to prominence only relatively recently, is one of “the most auspicious days in the Hindu religion.” Nor can we possibly endorse this statement — “The belief that buying gold on this day would make you prosperous throughout the year is shared by one and all” — or others contained in that message.
We have now taken internal steps to ensure that advertising messages put out in the name of The Hindu are consistent with its editorial policy and that our Code of Editorial Values, which says there is “a firm line between the business operations of the Company and editorial operations and content”, is strictly adhered to by all.
— Siddharth Varadarajan
Editor
