The selected cartoons appeared first in other publications, either in print or online, or on social media, and are credited appropriately.
In today’s featured cartoon, Manjul comments on the alacrity with which the Gujarat Police moved to arrest activist Teesta Setalvad and former Director General of Police R.B. Sreekumar shortly after the Supreme Court exonerated then-chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others of complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The police in their FIR quoted extensively from the SC judgment, which accused the pair and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt — already jailed in an unrelated case — of falsifying evidence in the case.
Also in the context of Setalvad and Sreekumar’s arrests, Sajith Kumar takes a dig at a Mann ki Baat address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 47th anniversary of the declaration of the Emergency in 1975. During the 90th edition of his monthly radio programme, Modi decried attempts to crush democracy during the “dark period” of the Emergency.
Alok Nirantar takes a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has denied having any role in the ongoing crisis caused by the rebellion of a majority Shiv Sena MLAs against their own party in Maharashtra. The rebellion has left the Maha Vikas Aghadi government — a coalition of the Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, led by Sena chief and CM Uddhav Thackeray — tottering.
Kirtish Bhatt takes a dig at politicians after BJP MP Varun Gandhi criticised the government’s new ‘Agnipath’ scheme for short-term armed forces recruitment, asking why politicians should enjoy pensions if the recruits (‘Agniveers’ or fire warriors) are ineligible for them after four years of service. In the illustration, a politician is depicted fuming while giving his reaction to the Pilibhit MP’s statement. “What does he want? That we should become Vidhayakveer or Sansadveer (assembly or Parliament warriors) in support of Agniveers,” the angry politician asks a bewildered journalist.
E.P. Unny also comments on Maharashtra’s ongoing political crisis, with the state assembly’s deputy Speaker having sent disqualification notices to rebel leader Eknath Shinde and 15 other MLAs — which the rebels have challenged in the Supreme Court. He compares the closely-watched conflict to the upcoming presidential election on 18 July, in which National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu’s victory seems a foregone conclusion.