ULTA PULTA
Politics of caricatures
Jaspal Bhatti 

In late 1980s, I took up cartooning as a profession and sketched many political and social cartoons for five years for The Tribune. During my stint as a cartoonist, I realised that if a person has some disproportionate features, it makes for a better cartoon. For instance, Indira Gandhi’s nose, Narasimha Rao’s lips, Jayalaltha’s hips, or Laloo’s cheeks made for some delightful features for caricaturists.

Cartooning is such an art that it is liked by everybody, except for the person who features in these cartoons. There are some politicians whose cartoons look more pleasant than their actual/real personalities. I don’t know what sort of a cartoon of Mamata Bannerjee was circulated on the net by a professor of Jadavpur University that he got arrested and was harassed.

RK Laxman says cartooning is the art of disapproval and complaint. A cartoonist exercises his right to criticise, ridicule, complain and find fault with the administration. Mamata, perhaps, thinks it is the administration’s right to thrash a cartoonist if he doesn’t draw well. A chamcha said, "Mamataji, you have an excellent system of taking feedback. Anyone who wants to complain, you put them in jail and ask them to give their feedback freely from there without any pressure from the CPM or any opposition party."

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