Ever since Narendra Modi came to power, bulk of the journalists started showing their true colours and most sensible people now realise that there is nothing like truly neutral journalist. Most of them, if not everyone, have ideological affiliation and many are actively working to peddle a particular political agenda.
However, the same truth is not so obvious when it comes to ‘activists’ or ‘artists’ who continue to pretend as if they are driven by some quest for truth. Cartoonists too fancy themselves as being artists though they are closer to being like journalists, and thus bulk of their work reeks of bias. Many Twitter users have been pointing out such bias.
One such user is “टीपूडा” whose username is @PR1CELES5 who has “corrected” many cartoons, especially those made by cartoonist Satish Acharya, to show how the original cartoons were biased and presenting only one particular point of view.
Read: The-Lying-Lama on Twitter: The guy who’s gets Rajdeep Sardesai’s goat, everytime
@PR1CELES5, whose real name is Amol, is not any professional cartoonist but his “pictorial rebuttals” have become very popular. The 24 years old from Maharashtra told OpIndia that he made these cartoons just for fun, but at the same time wanted to send a message too. He said that he will continue to make more such cartoons whenever he finds time amidst running his all transport business.
Here are some of the popular “corrected” cartoons by Amol along with the original ones:
A cartoon shared by Shashi Tharoor by one “Mansoor” continues to mix up Citizenship Amendment Act (not applicable to Indian citizens) and National Register for Citizens (NRC, applicable to everyone. However, the same is not even ready in draft formation, so all fears regarding same are unfounded).
Amol cleverly ‘corrected’ the cartoon and added a speech bubble where HM Shah is asking a citizen that despite explaining in detail, why are you asking same question, one can see that the ‘citizen’ is doing so because Shashi Tharoor is making him do so.
Another such cartoon corrected by Amol is by cartoonist Satish Acharya. Acharya, in his cartoon, is implying that Delhi Police is watching while a violent mob shouting ‘goli maaro saalo ko’ slogans is marching ahead.
In the ‘corrected’ cartoon, Amol shows how Acharya was silently watching and not using his artwork when angry violent mob attacked police in Gujarat when anti-CAA protests went violent.
Another such cartoon Acharya made was following the release of Tanhaji and Chhapaak earlier this month. While Ajay Devgn starrer Tanhaji broke box office records, Deepika Padukone’s Chhapaak, despite a badly misfired PR stunt, failed to make any impact on the box office. Acharya, through his cartoon, showed that while Tanhaji got the money, Chhapaak got the hearts.
Amol cleverly corrected Acharya and said that as much as the ‘liberals’ may hate to admit, Tanhaji won at the box office as well as over people’s hearts.
Another Cartoon of Acharya was after former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s most recent photograph went viral. He has been kept under detention ahead of abrogation of Article 370 in J&K. Acharya tries to imply his detention is silencing of democracy.
Amol pointed out that how the ‘democracy is dead’ narrative is peddled because the ‘left’ cannot digest the fact that PM Modi was elected with a thumping majority a second time.
Earlier this month, Acharya drew a cartoon which showed that it was India which was bringing global economy down with moves like demonetisation.
Amol showed how Satish, who through his cartoons shows that people voted for Modi because they are Islamophobic, is actually a Hinduphobic himself.
A day after death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Acharya had shared a cartoon where Mahatma Gandhi could be seen saying how they (his assassin) couldn’t kill him, that is he is still alive through his thoughts and ideas while Godse can be seen saying how they couldn’t ‘hang him’. That despite a death sentence, even Godse is alive.
Amol ‘corrected’ the cartoon by showing how Sardar Patel, who dreamt and made united India possible is forgotten while Jinnah who divided India is alive. During the anti-CAA Protests at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, ‘Jinnah wali azaadi‘ slogans were raised. Sharjeel Imam has been the mastermind of these road blockage at Shaheen Bagh.
Ahead of Delhi elections, Acharya posted a cartoon which tried to imply that BJP is trying to make these elections about Kejriwal vs Pakistan. However, he seems to have conveniently forgotten that when India carried out surgical strike against Pakistan after the Uri attack, Kejriwal, along with other politicians, had questioned the strike and demanded proofs.
After the attacks on JNU campus by leftist students on those students who were registering for the winter semester, Acharya, through his cartoon tried to imply that they had the support of PM Modi for such attacks. However, in reality, those carrying out the attacks were leftist students.
In this cartoon, Acharya tries to show that PM Modi is speaking about attacking Pakistan when other things like economy, inflation and job opportunity are attacking him from behind. Amol shows that for all these issues, the Modi government has indeed brought in schemes to bring these issues under control. But Acharya’s bias does not allow him to see this.
In Acharya’s cartoon, PM Modi and HM Amit Shah are donning Delhi Police uniform (since Delhi Police falls under central government), and Gulshan (name changed), the minor who opened fire at Jamia Nagar anti-CAA protests is shown firing because he is angry over note ban and implementation of GST. In ‘corrected’ cartoon, Amol shows how the same Modi and Shah are busting the propaganda of these shootouts which many believe to be staged.
Propagandist Kunal Kamra seems to be having a mental breakdown after he heckled Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in an Indigo flight last week. Following the incident, he was put on No Fly List by Indigo as well as three other airlines including Air India. Acharya mocked the flight ban by saying how government plans to disinvest Air India and hence the ‘joke’ is on the airline. However, the ‘joke’ was on Kamra, who despite all the ‘support’ he garnered from the Arnab-haters, still couldn’t fly these four airlines.
Update: Amol has now changed his Twitter username to @AmolDraws and he can be followed on Twitter here.
