Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Cartoonist condemned for calling a spade a spade) that was published in Newsband

Cartoonist condemned for calling a spade a spade

India has been independent now for sixty five years. But seeing what has happened to political cartoonist and anti-corruption crusader Aseem Trivedi, one wonders whether we are really independent?

Is India really a democratic country? If it is so then why is a cartoonist not allowed to exercise his democratic rights by criticizing the government for its crime. If the government is corrupt it is not crime. But if someone calls the government corrupt it is crime. Strange!

What’s the difference between Hitler and our government today?  During Hitler’s time the political cartoonists in Germany were condemned and persecuted. What’s the difference between India today and Hitler’s Germany those days? When Hitler assumed power, Germany's tally of newspapers and periodicals was 4,700. By the time the Nazi nightmare ended, the number had dwindled to less than a thousand. Dictatorships cannot afford laughter because people may laugh at the dictator, and that would not do. In all the years of Hitler, there never was a good comedy, not a good cartoon, not a parody, not a spoof. The same might happen here if the trend persists.

Aseem Trivedi was arrested, and charged with sedition, an offence punishable with life imprisonment! Trivedi's sin is that during the Anna movement he published some cartoons which Government regarded as offensive. Trivedi was arrested in Mumbai last week for cartoons he had drawn and displayed in November 2011. The arrest was carried out on the basis of a complaint filed by the legal advisor of a Mumbai-based N.G.O.

Was the arrest of Aseem Trivedi politically motivated? Among some of the cartoons taken offence to is one showing 26/11′s lone surviving terrorist, Kasab, as a dog that is peeing on the Constitution, another of India’s national emblem of the Four Sarnath Lions of King Asoka as blood thirsty wolves inscribed with the motto “Bhrashtamev Jayate” (which means, long live corruption), modified from its original “Satyamev Jayate” (truth alone shall triumph).

Someone rightly said that what kind of art an artist makes is his creative liberty and if Trivedi has made cartoons that show the true state of our society and politics today, what’s wrong in it? He is also right when he says that if we can’t talk about Ambedkar or Mohammed or even the political scenario of our country and the sad state of its politicians, then what’s the point of having the freedom of speech?”

Trivedi has never had any case filed against him throughout the time when he was a cartoonist. Trivedi has been a cartoonist before the launching of the anti-corruption movement. Trivedi is a conscious, concerned citizen. People who condemn him are actually the ones who are not concerned for the country. They are hypocrites. Instead of targeting our corrupt government they target a truthful cartoonist like Aseem. Very sad!