Scared of a Cartoon, are we?

May 12
NabanitaDhar

When I logged on to the Times Of India website in the morning, there were as many as three news reports of rapes in various parts of the country, a piece on the dwindling condition of the economy and many other disturbing articles on issues which must be on the priority list of our Government and the political class in general. But no they choose to fret over a 60 year old cartoon of a man, who in his lifetime raised no objection to the same!
Really has our democracy come to this, where the so called upholders of the country debate on a non-issue such as this? So there is a cartoon of B.R Ambedkar on a snail depicted as the constitution with Nehru behind him with a leash.  This was made by the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan recipient cartoonist Shankar in 1948 when B.R Ambedkar was alive. If it was objectionable or derogatory, it would probably have been raised by Dr. Ambedkar himself. He would have probably laughed at it but our politicians today have chosen to make an issue out of it.
Just to get some background on the cartoon, the constitution had taken around 3 years to take shape if I am not wrong and hence this cartoon was a political satire to throw light on that. Infact, the other politician in the cartoon had infact asked Shankar during those days to not even spare him in his caricatures. So if the people on whom the so called ‘jibes’ were intended had no problem whatsoever with it then why now, why by people who have absolutely nothing to do with it?
Who are these politicians to decide what message the students reading the NCERT books with these cartoons will get? Let them see, read and decide. Who are they to take a call on what matter should or should not be in the books? It is upto those that are qualified in the respective subjects to do so not the politicians holding the degrees of money and camouflaged vandalism.
We Indians have a terrible habit of painting everything with a colour of regionalism or classism or some other non-sense. We just do not have the ability to judge an issue or a matter on its true value and end up creating more confusion instead.
What did these leaders achieve by blowing this cartoon out of proportion? Just further wastage of the tax payers’ money by adjournments of both the houses of parliament. When they are supposed to work and take decisions that aid the growth of the country, these regressive morons are busy advertising an archaic thought process coupled with destructive outlook. What have they got by stopping further distribution of the book? I guess somebody needs to tell them every banned book in reality enlightens the world.
Actually the fact of the matter is that we have a bunch of cowards occupying the temples of democracy in our country. Even if they know deep in their hearts that this issue is not even worth flagging, they will not have the guts to say it out loud for fear of infuriating a certain section of their vote bank. They will continue doing their monkey dance, wasting precious public money and doing no good at all to the nation.
I do not know on what path our society is moving. I fear that after a few years it will be the politicians who would decide what students should read about in our country. There will be no place for free and fair criticism which is imperative to any democracy. One such platform, the cartoons, I believe in many ways are actually the mental pictures of these politicians in the minds of the common people. Right to dissent or Right to express ourselves freely are being severely encroached upon by these nincompoops who care about nothing but votes and money.
Maybe these antics of theirs will please a certain uneducated and backward section of society which is made to dance to the politicians’ tunes just for the want of money, or due to the inability to think for their own selves. But they can’t fool us all, we see right through their motives of stirring up storms on such meagre issues and giving it the anti-dalit tag.
All I can say is Censorship such as these reflects society’s lack of self-belief.  It shows how authoritarian our politicians crave to be.  Perhaps they need to be reminded of what Voltaire once said ‘Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.’

76 thoughts on “Scared of a Cartoon, are we?”

  1. Regressive morons must be the right word you have used to describe these filthy politicians Naba. They dug up the buried cartoon to create a ruckus in the parliament. Hate them.

  3. the students of today are going to become the politicians of tomorrow, and i think all our effort should go into taking care to ensure that the kids learn the right thing. to do this, we will have to tweak our own lives and morals a little, since our actions will teach louder than our words. it would be foolish to think that since kids like to rebel, they will surely not want to persist in messing things up any more than we already have. that would be living in fools paradise. great post naba, one that made me seethe with anger at how we are all responsible for being taken for a collective ride by the very people we have vested our trust in.

  4. Very nice post! True, our politicians have very important things to worry like in which parts of India The National Flag Ashoka chakra has one spike missing, who forgot one word while singing the national anthem , which long-dead leader;s statue is missing in the streets etc…Where do they have time for the actual problems of the nation? Shameful! Nehru should come back as a ghost and whip the hell out of these nincompoops!

  5. Anything that makes us smile also makes us think. Comedy does just that as well as comic strips do.
    But, my "for the people, by the people of the people democratic country" has a giant book of jokes called the "Indian Penal Code" to contain anything it considers an "issue"; with which it can slap anyone, anywhere who refuse to bend his/her back and rebels to stand straight for a change. For example, did you guess that "you" could be booked under:
    Joke 1: Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage or abetting waging of war against the Government of India),
    Joke 2: Section 153A (doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony),
    Joke 3: Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief)

    for writing this post along with me and others who have commented in support of your post??? just like the protestors in Koodankulam found out recently for questioning against what they felt was not right?!

  6. The issue is very petty to be discussed in the parliament.

    Though your thoughts are good, the lines "a certain uneducated and backward section of society" doesn't suit the stance you are taking. Please avoid using such terms. Let us promote equality in our generation.

  7. There is a huge section of society which is uneducated and backward for nor fault of their own but they are manipulated with such antics by our politicians..I am just merely stating the facts Arun.. NOM

  9. Shameful! Nehru should come back as a ghost and whip the hell out of these nincompoops!– How I wish that happens Jaish !

  14. There may even be a strategy in blowing up such non-issues– to divert attention from poor performance, corruption etc.

  18. Offcourse we are .. I saw the rajya and lok sabha proceedings on the day , It was shambolic and these are the people we have chosen ot lead us. Show how Good we are ..

    TO top it up the episode on Satayamev Jayate .. compare the two , our kids are not safe and our leaders are fighting over a cartoon , thats how pathetic the situation is in our country..

    I dont know how these people sleep at night .. but then i guess money makes the world go round ..

    Bikram's

  20. Insightful, knowledgeable and precise. Liked it, i am gonna post something similar soon 🙂

  22. It is becoming impossible to find decent words for most politicians
    (i hope i am not hauled over the coals for this,that is why i said MOST )

  31. Its good to see a Blogger questioning the relevance of this cartoon! The opposition parties and the ruling parties are steering the boat towards a Water fall which will end in shatter the boat to pieces. The opposition parties can rather take up the issue of violence against women and debate about it! Women from various villages are being forced into prostitution and many are also being raped and killed! Has the Govt taken any significant steps to fight this form of organised crime? There are umpteen number of issues to deal with! But the lok sabha most of the times engages itself into such futile debates! Wish the Netas read this post!

  32. Know something there was a time when it was a honour to be drawn as a cartoon. It meant you were of public importance.
    I hope we the citizens of India will have to integrity to choose better leaders.

  34. This comes as no surprise to me. We Indians are the racist most and complain that rest of the world is racist! Ha, if given a chance, the would lead a movement against all of ancient cartoonists who are still alive.

  38. Beautifully expressed. I feel every Indian who thinks straight feels the same about the cartoon issue.
    The takeaway is that these things should be left on those who are good at it… and these politicians are not the subject matter experts, are they!
    The last thing we want in schools is the politically tailored education for our kids!

  46. great post, i think the way power politicians influencing the freedom of press and the freedom of expression is more like a threat to the the the fundamental rights of citizens of india.

  48. With power comes great responsibility. Aggressive and abrupt steps on crucial matters can endanger the peace and stability of the nation. Why take the risk when they have things like these to fool around?

  49. Prevailing intolerance.
    Its time to erase fraternity and secularism from Preamble of our constitution.

  50. These politicians so cruelly kill the spirit of 'mera bhaarat mahaan' in every way and claim to be working for the nation…
    They don't have any conscience left and just keep playing the blame game.

  51. Excellent article Nabanita! I love the way you have put it across.

    The 'controlling' tendency of our politicians who have an IQ below the rate of their breathing have grown to mammoth proportions. What surprises me is that these people grew up on Lakhsman's brilliance.

    The attitude of non tolerance is so Talibanisk. Could they please stop making decision for others?

  60. Another thing is that the cartoon was sketched decades ago. Perhaps both the subject and the cartoonist are long dead. I am amazed that it still evokes unnecessary passions even today. What we read in our books are not decided by academics but politicians who care nothing about the country.

  62. there are books which somehow do not praise Gandhi ji or Nehru Ji or Indira Gandhi ….. should we not burn them and abolish them in respect of the father of nation and the x prime ministers of India? Either we have become very sensitive or we are scared of sarcasm and criticism ! Teach our kids "My India is Great" but the moment they question how, end up scolding them as even we learnt our India is Great but how … even we have no clue ! Writers like yourself can make huge differences in the minds of people who read you, Nabanita and hope we start facing truth as Indians before its too late and some set of opportunist political leaders and bureaucrats sell India back to some other country !

  64. How true! After such incidents we bloggers do think twice before publishing our content. But we are still going to blog as usual.
    Its a right that we must practice.

  66. Ambedkar along with Gandhi is a Holy cow who is not be commented upon even indirectly.
    By the way some people speak , people who do not know Constitutional History of India would be led to believe that it was Ambedkar alone who wrote the Constitution of India.
    U might check on some blogs on this at my site ramanan50.wordpress.com

  70. Well said…. India needs more cartoonists who aren't afraid of saying it like it is and more public awareness that they ought to stand up to the so called authorities who try and destroy such freedom of speech. We don't realise that we're still under bondage and now it almost seems worse because it's our own people who do it, without any love for the country they're supposed to be serving. It's the only thing standing between us and being the most powerful nation out there.
    That and the fact that our people continue to violate India by spitting and peeing on OUR land.

  71. freedom of expression should not be taken for granted.We cannot use our freedom to offend someone and then call it our right to do so.But in this context cribbing over a cartoon of Ambedkar who himself must have enjoyed it, for the government to take it at as an issue is something ludicrous.If someone had the right to sue the artist, it would only be B.R.Ambedkar and not any poilitcal scum of this country.

  72. True. It's the same premise as the one used in Orwell's 1984 by The Party. Keep the people busy with something and carry on leading your profligate life. Although, this is not quite war 🙂

  75. This is the first articles of yours that I've read, it is really well scripted and interesting. I'm sure I'm going to read all the ones that follow.
    And about the article, it's really saddening seeing politicians interfering in education as well as the political economics that is going on. I really hope we see a change soon.
    Also: http://www.thebusinesspov.blogspot.in – My blog, and if you could give feedback.

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