February 24, 2010, John Malhotra - The government of Meghalaya is now considering bringing a blasphemy law in the wake of swelling outrage over an objectionable picture of Jesus Christ published in a school textbook.

A nursery cursive writing exercise book published by Delhi-based Skyline Publications had depicted Jesus Christ with a beer can and a cigarette.

Enraged over the act, the Catholic Church banned the publisher in all its schools and demanded the government to take stringent action against such objectionable publications.

In response, the government said it was mulling over bringing a new bill after scrutinizing the Education Act of 1984, to monitor such cases.

The absence of such laws, according to Ampareen Lyngdoh, Meghalaya's education minister, incapacitates officials who want to take action against such publishers.

Therefore, a law is being proposed and if passed, will empower the Meghalaya Board of School Education to monitor the contents and price of textbooks, she said.

In the controversial school textbook, the offensive picture of Jesus is used to describe the word 'idol' that illustrates the letter 'I'.

Miffed by the belittling act, the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) demanded the Meghalaya government to install a mechanism to scan all school books.