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, Sandeep Adhwaryu, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, takes a swipe at the prevailing communal disharmony in various parts of India. Incidents of violence were reported in the past few days from Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir among other places.
Manjul highlights the unprecedented heatwave in the country, after news emerged that April 2022 was the third warmest April in 122 years. With some states imposing lockdowns to protect people, the cartoonist points out that this is the third consecutive summer that people have faced the prospect of staying indoors, after the two Covid years.
Satish Acharya illustrates on the power crisis in many states, using the adage ‘chiraag taley andhera‘ (it’s always dark under the lamp). He also puns on the ‘power’ that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wields, blaming him for not providing power (electricity) to the people. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had chaired a meeting to deal with the acute electricity supply crisis, but the government set a deadline for June-end to import coal.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s latest ruling on India’s Covid vaccine policy, Kirtish Bhatt jokes that while people can’t be forced to get vaccinated, there’s no way of taking vaccines out of individuals who have got the shot.
R. Prasad highlights former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s ‘I was there to bring down’ Babri Masjid comment. Fadnavis, while addressing a BJP rally, said he could vouch that no Shiv Sena member was present at the time of the demolition on 6 December 1992. The punchline is a reference to the adage ‘holier than thou’.