Friday, September 14, 2012

Aseem Trivedi and his Cartoons

Whenever some one starts speaking on this subject, the first question asked is "Have you seen those cartoons?". My reply is "Yes I have seen them, if not all of Aseem's Cartoons, at least those for which he was accused".  

Having said that I need to answer the most probable 2nd question "Do you think he has done it right?". The answer to this question is not as easy to be given as for the first question. There are two reasons for the same. One is that "Who am I to say whether it was right or wrong?". The second is "Is it important to know whether it is right or wrong or is it more important to know what feelings and thoughts of this young, creative artists must have lead him to do what he did?"

I read recently a simple but a powerful comment on the facebook. While some oldies are looting and the other oldies are watching the loot, the young ones are busy on facebook and twitter. How true these words are. While there is one young Aseem to express his anguish through powerful cartoons, what is the the rest of the young population in India doing?

Recently I saw the photograph of a poster put up by a local MLA in Madurai welcoming P.Chidambram and other Congress leaders. In that the National Emblem is morphed with the photographs of P.Chidambaram, His son Karthi and Rahul Sonia Maino. Now who must go to Jail, the Congressman who has put up this poster for large public view or Aseem Trivedi who is a young, creative artist exploring various opportunities to express his anguish as a Patriotic Indian. 

If Aseem is punished in any way, I declare that we are the criminals. Through shameless tolerance, and spineless silence we are declaring ourselves as the ultimate criminals on this holy land Bharat. I have stopped uttering and writing all nationalistic slogans. We do not deserve to utter them any more!

1 comment:

sanju said...

Dear Sir
I have been folowing the Anna movement since last year and has mixed reactions - happy - because masses have supported the movement and Sad - because it doesn't transformed into action .
Few months back I posted a comment on FB that if a signature campaign is launched on a social site like FB aggainst corruption and the corrupt , is it acceptable in the court . Will the mandate be acknowledged and action be taken against such politicians.

Aseem is as brave as Arvind or Kiran and thus facing the same fate.
Its painful but my question is - can anything be done to save our future while we , the youngsters are on FB.