Janmabhumi’s edited and op-ed pages in the Kannur-Kasargod New Year edition.
On New Year’s morning, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) state president Syed Sadikali Shihab Thangal received an unexpected phone call from a party worker in Kannur. The caller congratulated him on Mr. Thangal’s signed article on saying goodbye to 2025 published on the editorial page of the BJP mouthpiece Janmabhumi.
Although initially confused, Mr. Thangal soon realized that it was neither a prank nor a misunderstanding. Instead, it turned out to be a New Year plot by Janmabhumi in its Kannur-Kasaragod edition.
It’s been a shaky start to the new year for Janmabhumi readers in Kannur and Kasaragod. For journalists, however, it became a faux pas destined to be long remembered and laughed at.
“It was a technical error during the printing process,” said Ganesh Mohan, head of Janmabhum’s Kannur office, which is in charge of the publication.
Chandrika edited and edited the site in Kannur on New Year.
The mix-up occurred at a private computer-to-plate (CTP) center, where files of digital newspaper pages are directly transferred to printing plates without the use of film. At the Kannur CTP centre, which prepares plates for newspapers like Janmabhumi and Chandrika, the editorial page plate of Chandrika was inadvertently sent along with the Janmabhumi plates.
The error went unnoticed at the Pratheeksha printing presses, where newspapers like Madhyamam, Suprabhatam, Veekshanam and Janmabhumi are printed. “Fortunately, there was nothing directly targeted at the BJP on the Chandrika editorial page that day,” consoled a BJP worker in Kasaragod.
Imprint too
Page 4, bearing both the Chandrika imprint and the printed line, featured an editorial on the breakup of the Left Democratic Front and three opinion pieces by Mr. Thangal, MK Muneer and Mohammed Shah focusing on the farewell to 2025, reflections on the works of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and the reality of Yelahanka, respectively.
“More than reaching out to a wider audience, I am happy to connect with a different section of readers. It was really a New Year’s surprise and I will definitely remember it next year,” said Mr. Thangal on a lighter note.
For Chandrika editor Kamal Varadoor, it was a windfall of publicity from a rival newspaper. “Getting a wider readership for our editorial page in the New Year is a good sign. It shows that the days ahead are brighter,” he said with a laugh.
Errors and blunders in the media, especially in the press, are not uncommon. But the mouthpiece of a party publishing the editorial page of a rival party’s newspaper is widely seen in journalistic circles as rare folly.
Published – 01 Jan 2026 20:55 IST
