My cartoons on contemporary politics have been published in many news portals. Here are five cartoons that tell you the political story of Maharashtra in 2022.
MVA govt fall predictions
Former president of Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party Chandrakant Patil standing amid a flock of sheep and saying, “MVA [Maha Vikas Aghadi] government will fall”. The sheep, with their lotus heads, respond: “He is dreaming.”
For nearly two years since the MVA government was formed in the state in 2019, Patil kept saying that it would fall, but nothing was happening. The thought behind this cartoon was that this was the BJP’s way to keep its cadres together and stop them from defecting. Both scenarios turned out to be true this year.
The BJP washing machine
Politicians that are exposed by the BJP, often join the party and are given a clean chit. It almost seemed as if the party had a ‘washing machine’ facility that wrung tainted leaders clean and as good as new. But Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut is an exception. Raut and the BJP continue to be at loggerheads, and going to jail did not make him change sides. The cartoon features Raut kicking the BJP’s ‘washing machine’ and saying, “Main jhukega nahi (I won’t bow down)” from the movie Pushpa: The Rise (2021).
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Political ‘mohra’ on the cross
The political situation in Maharashtra changed overnight with the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government in June and a new government, led by Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis was formed. Shinde split the Shiv Sena and joined hands with the BJP. Among all those MLAs who supported and joined him were also the ones who had been charged by the BJP with scams. But like many others, they too were declared clean. Word went around that Shinde did this for his lust for power and BJP was using him as a pawn. The cartoon shows Shinde, a BJP pawn, breaking the bow and arrow — then-party symbol of the Shiv Sena. The highlight is the title I gave it: ‘Moh-Ra’, where ‘moh’ means lust and ‘mohra’ means pawn. Today, one sees that it is Fadnavis who is steering the wheels of the Maharashtra government.
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Maharashtra to Gujarat
For a few months since the new Maharashtra government took over, there were only two ministers in the cabinet — Shinde and Fadnavis. During this period, we saw many business projects, which were due to be set up in Maharashtra, being moved to Gujarat. This led to a furore in the state and opposition parties were up in arms. But the transfer of projects continued — the cartoon shows Fadnavis and Shinde on top of a bullet train to Gujarat, carrying luggage boxes depicting those projects.
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Border issue behind Twitter scenes
The last cartoon of this year was on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue. When Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai was called out for a tweet that disturbed the peace in both states, he said that his Twitter account had been hacked. At the same time, Eknath Shinde was as good as muted on this issue, while Devendra Fadnavis was more vocal. My cartoon shows Fadnavis grinning sheepishly and holding two placards featuring Bommai and Shinde. What it shows is that Fadnavis was aware of the truth behind the scene and who meant what.
Clyde Crasto is Cartoonist, Columnist, and National Spokesperson at Nationalist Congress Party. Views are personal.