Toongate- the inside story

From the past few days it seems adults particularly our politicians are finding toons more adorable than kids. Either its the Mamta Banarjee’s toon leading to imprisonment of a professor, or the curious case of Gandhi clan caricature making Kapil Sibal demanding censorship of social media content or the recent Nehru - Ambedkar Text book toongate that lead to disruption of parliamentary proceedings.

Caricature has been a part of our society ever since India got its print media. From its origin it has been a way of seeking humor in some serious issues. There are regular toon columns that run through newspapers and magazines. Toons have been just a medium to bring some humor to serious side. And we all have loved that. So whats wrong with that now? I can’t understand. Making toons of politicians is now considered an act of disrespect. We are now getting animated movies and majority of those made in India are based on our mythological gods; so what does that mean? Are we becoming disrespectful to our Gods? We respect and believe them the same way as we have done always. And there is a censor board for such movies and they have never banned any such content. Even we have loved to watch that with our kids.

So why a scene political toons? Don’t tell me please, our politicians in any case are above God! I don’t think so…

There is only one thing that I can see in this whole case. Our politicians have lost their sense of humor (I always doubted if they had any). Or they are just trying to blindside the real issues of discussion. They have got scams, inflation above the neck, now rupee decline to the lowest depths compared to dollar, social condition getting worst day by day, airline crisis and many more. They are just getting hefty cheques, enjoying travels across nation and world on government expenses and are doing nothing else.

Being an Indian have you ever asked any politician what they do in the parliament? What they are paid for? We have attended their rallies sitting in sun, often got slapped with rules that they make in their air condition rooms ( that certainly don’t apply on them, of course). No we haven’t. For an Indian it has become a part of common news coverage that ends up with the newspaper headlines the following day. Actually we have got used to such nonsense. Its not our politicians who have lost their minds (Actually they never had one), but we voluntarily have put our minds in bags.