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, Sajith Kumar takes a dig at the preoccupations of the political class as Indians grapple with issues like unemployment, with the ability to speak English giving an edge in the job market. He alludes to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu’s comment denouncing the “Macaulay system of education which imposed English as the medium of instruction”, which “immensely harmed the country”.
Playing on a famous line from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (“If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it…”) R. Prasad also pokes fun at Naidu’s remarks, which included a comment that education in English-medium schools has given rise to a small class of aristocrats.
Manjul refers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) support to Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Kashmir Files, depicting the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, which has been made tax-free in BJP-ruled states including Gujarat. Netizens have questioned such moves, asking why the films Parzania and Firaaq, based on the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was CM, were respectively boycotted by theatre owners and banned in the state. The 2006 film Fanaa, which criticised the Modi-led government in Gujarat, was also banned in the state.
Alok Nirantar takes a jibe at developments in Maharashtra politics, referring to the Shiv Sena’s rejection of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) offer to join the state’s ruling coalition, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — an alliance of the Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray rubbished the proposal, calling it a “conspiracy hatched by the BJP”, and emphasising the Shiv Sena’s commitment to “Hindutva”.
Sandeep Adhwaryu | The Times of India
Sandeep Adhwaryu derides Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued war against Ukraine, while Russia itself reels under massive Western sanctions.
E.P. Unny of The Indian Express refers to reports of former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis submitting 6.3 GB of evidence to the Union home secretary in a sealed envelope about alleged corruption in police transfers under Maharashtra’s MVA government.