The best cartoons of the day, chosen by editors at ThePrint.
The selected cartoons appeared first in other publications, either in print or online, or on social media, and are credited appropriately.
Sajith Kumar for the Deccan Herald takes a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which celebrates 25 December as ‘Good Governance Day’ in the memory of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was born on this day. However, this particular Santa Claus’ bag of goodies is torn and empty.
Continuing with the Modi-as-Santa Claus theme, Mika Aziz depicts the PM being chased away by Hindutva campaigners, who seem to care little about the cuts in GST rates — their prime concern remains the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Sandeep Adhwaryu for the Times of India makes another Christmas-related swipe at the government — this time for its decision to mint special Rs 100 coins in Vajpayee’s memory. The poor man is left wondering if this is another example of ‘India Shining’, the slogan that purportedly lost Vajpayee the 2004 general elections.
Reports emerged recently that PM Modi was flummoxed by a BJP worker’s question via video conference. Gokul Gopalakrishnan for The Asian Age suggests that in future, he may only field questions from himself or his trusted aide, BJP president Amit Shah.
The BJP will contest just 17 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, having given away the others to its allies, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Ramvilas Paswan LJP. BBC News Hindi’s Kirtish Bhatt depicts a downcast Amit Shah defending his ‘half’-lotus by trying to pass it off as an example of his own convincing skills.
R. Prasad for The Economic Times has a Christmas political round-up of sorts.
First, he depicts Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking a potshot at Sonia Gandhi’s religious background, referring to her, Rahul Gandhi and a Congress ‘everyman’ as “mother, son and the holy spirit”. The Congress trio wish for the greeting to come true, while DMK chief M.K. Stalin recalls the role his father, M. Karunanidhi, played in forming the UPA in 2004, and says he’ll do the same for Rahul.
Second, he shows Mayawati as doubting Thomas, Akhilesh Yadav willing to be Judas for 30 pieces of silver, and Sitaram Yechury as Saint Peter, wanting to rebuild the Left’s ‘churches’ in Bengal and Tripura.
And finally, Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar and Ramvilas Paswan are the ‘three wise men’, with the latter two gathering under an umbrella while Shah gets drenched. Prasad puns on the Biblical wise men following the pole star, and Paswan’s penchant for backing the winning horse in successive elections.