LOL: Locked up over laughter?

Satire is under threat across India, with politicians unleashing the law against cartoonists and humorists at the slightest hint of criticism

Humour is right at the top of things under threat in India today.

Ministers, governments and establishments across the country are in a race to jail or threaten those who make fun of them. Clearly, a sense of humour has no place in their lives.

The list is long—Kerala Lalithakala Akademi’s appreciation of a cartoon on rape-accused bishop Franco caused the Kerala Catholic Bishop Council and the state government to see red. Journalist Prashant Kanojia was arrested for a humorous tweet on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

BJP youth wing activist Priyanka Sharma was arrested for posting on Facebook a morphed picture of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Though the courts have granted them relief, the fact remains that humour and humorists are under a looming shadow. Metrolife spoke to two reputed cartoonists to find out the mood in the satire business.

Cartoons are political commentary
Kundapura-based Satish Acharya, with more than 15 years of cartooning experience, can’t fathom why people take offence when politics is satirised. “If you’re talking about editorial cartooning, they are mostly the cartoonist’s commentary on politics and society. These can be funny, humorous, ironic, teasing, critical or exaggerated. The subject and his or her followers get offended at the slightest sign of lampooning. It indicates how low their tolerance threshold is,” he says.

Provocation good, offence optional
Sajith Kumar, cartoonist with Deccan Herald with about 13 years of experience, says cartoonists have no formal guidelines, but go by a personal ‚lakshman rekha’. “My art is meant to provoke people, but we shouldn’t offend too much. I follow a policy of not going extreme when it comes to matters like religion, about which people are touchy,” he says. He says cartoonists must find inoffensive ways to put across their points about religion. However, cartoonists should not refrain from doing against the government, he notes.

“We are like the young boy who says the emperor is naked; our main role is to keep the authorities on their toes. For this, we have to be ethical and courageous,” he says. Sajith mostly draws political cartoons and has faced the ire of Modi fans, though their anger is restricted to sending him nasty messages online.

“They ask me why I draw cartoons only targeting Narendra Modi and his government. Our job is to lampoon and point out the flaws of whoever is in power. When Manmohan Singh was the prime minister, I drew cartoons against him. Regimes come and go, we are neutral,” he explains.

Outrage, threats and push back
Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, the state government’s autonomous body to promote culture, chose a cartoon by K K Subhash for its annual awards. It showed rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal as a rooster, enjoying political and administrative support, while the nuns who spoke up against him fled the scene. While Christian organisations and the government asked the Akademi to rethink the award, the organisation upheld its decision.

Priyanka Sharma shared a picture of Mamata Banerjee’s face Photoshopped on to an image of Priyanka Chopra from the recent Met Gala. The Supreme Court granted conditional bail and told her to tender an apology. She has refused.

They troll to show loyalty
People don’t hesitate to exhibit their loyalty to a party or leader by trolling dissenters, says cartoonist Satish Acharya. "Earlier it used to be a personal thing, but now they go out of the way to defend their leader, and intimidate critics to fall in line,” he says. Cartoonists are always in the line of fire because the basis of the art is protest and criticism. Trolls fail to understand cartoonists are just doing their job, says Satish.

Face it alone?
Sajith Kumar is from Kerala and is a member of the Kerala Cartoon Academy. “Such organisations have not issued strong responses or taken any steps when a member faces an adverse situation. It’s mainly left to the individual to respond or react,” he says. It has become easy for people to spew vitriol because of the convenience of the Internet and social media, he says.