Cartoonists decry Thorat recommendations

Cartoons have turned into a controversial issue in recent days. The controversy erupted over a school text book cartoon which showed B R Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution, riding a snail with Jawaharlal Nehru standing behind with a whip in his hand. This cartoon led to a major furore in Parliament and this in turn led the government to appoint a committee that would look into all the school text book cartoons. 

The committee has recommended deletion of about twenty cartoons and also changes in the visual and verbal content of the cartoons. However, these recommendations have received criticism from the cartoonists whose work will be deleted from the text books. 'This is totally ridiculous, the recommendations are over reaching in their jurisdiction,' says Surender, cartoonist from

The Hindu newspaper. The panel has recommended that his cartoon on bureaucrats blocking Right to Information Act, may be deleted as it is not the correct interpretation of the role of the bureaucracy. 

Out of the twenty cartoons that may be deleted on the recommendations of the panel, the majority of cartoons are on politicians or bureaucrats. Tanmay Tyagi a senior political cartoonist, is of the view that the ruckus created by the politicians is done for the publicity sake and nothing else. 'There is nothing wrong with the cartoons, all the noise created around the cartoon is just a gimmick by the politicians,' says Tyagi.