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Death of the Cartoon -Paromita Sen

-The Telegraph

It was biting commentary and the political bosses flinched at it, possibly hated it, but they endured it all right. What does the vanishing art of cartooning tell us about ourselves?

Recently, the Museum of Cartoon Art was inaugurated at Savitribai Phule Pune University and an art gallery, also in Pune, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in memory of the legendary cartoonist R.K. Laxman. A little ironic given that political cartoons have almost entirely disappeared from our dailies and magazines.

Cartoons are a barometer of democracy, says cartoonist Sandeep Adhwaryu, who is based in New Delhi. “They are integral to society and reflect the times we live in,” he adds. If that is so, the barometer is showing unnatural weather conditions.

In September 2012, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested on sedition charges for a series that satirised widespread corruption in India. One of his cartoons showed the Parliament building as a lavatory buzzing with flies. The website hosting the series was blocked. Trivedi spent three years in court fighting his case as well as challenging the validity of the IT Act’s controversial Section 66A, which imposes up to three years imprisonment for sharing “offensive” messages online. At the time, the BJP criticised the move. The party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, “You are in power, that does not mean you impose an undeclared Emergency in the country.”

It has been 10 years since Trivedi’s arrest. In the last five years, more cartoonists have either lost column space or favour with this political party or that. Among the better known cases are those of Delhi-based Satish Acharya and Mumbai-based Manjul.

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