Ponnappa and Ravi Shankar, the renowned cartoon artists of our country took out all their mind out and sketched out artistically the current political and cultural stature. As Ponnappa quotes “ I never take up religion , that is the promise that I have done to my profession; not unless being requested by audience like this.”
Laughter took our breath out when these artists took on to their canvas. Yes, it is true that the political cartoonists in our country have lost their space in the newspapers but definitely not in our hearts. Unfortunately, they are not given the freedom they deserve.
Ponnappa keeps it simple and straight and says he will always remain a freelancer and that he is rather being directed by editorial heads. Religion is one such issue which strikes and hurts. It is so painful to listen from these artist that they receive threat calls and mails for expressing their rightful ideas.
Cartoonists in our country have unsure future in terms of work. There is no more money in this field and hence no political artists are being hired. Cartoonists now find more freedom to sketch out their art on social media platforms where it is both accepted and credited. Cartoons are no longer ugly portraits but the bitter truth of society we need to accept.
About the Author: Aishwarya A Rajpurohit is a student journalist at National School of Journalism, Bangalore. She presently writes for Bookstalkist.