Even as Udta Punjab is facing trouble from the draconian chief of Censor Board, Pahlaj Nihalani, cartoonists are also feeling the heat of censorship, but from the party which professes to be of a liberal bent: Congress. The Congress party has seen a steady decline in vote share and popularity all over the country. The number of states under its rule has come down to a handful, the largest state being Karnataka.
Satish Acharya, a professional cartoonist, he has mocked many political parties, and famous personalities in the past. He has been vocal on various issues and has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies quite often:
But Acharya’s luck ran out when he dared to poke fun at Congress CM of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. Echoing the fact that Congress in India was losing its grip, Acharya drew the following cartoon:
It seems the political masters in Karnataka were not “tolerant” enough. Congress, which has earlier used censorship as a tool to silence critics on social media, was at it again. Yesterday Acharya remarked on Facebook that he had been getting calls from local Congress party leaders to remove his cartoon hung for public display, because it was “hurting”. He also revealed that although Congress claimed it was “hurt”, Municipality authorities claimed he should remove it because it violated a “No Flex” rule.
The truth though was out today. Acharya was forced to remove the cartoon from the hoarding on his building. Acharya claimed that Kundapura Municipality officials gave the excuse of “No Flex” drive, but unofficially they admitted to being under lots of pressure from the local Congress leaders to remove it.
‘This skeleton’ says a lot about the misplaced priorities of Congress party in India. pic.twitter.com/YZkXa7SIeS
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) June 9, 2016
Now as a form of protest, against this intolerance shown towards an artiste, Acharya has decided to help spread his cartoon as far and wide as possible. He has made the same cartoon his Facebook profile cover and is urging his fans to share the cartoon as much as possible.
