The veteran cartoonist
Mathi would have not imagined that a theme he drew for Corona awareness would
cost him his job. The leading Tamil daily Dina Thanthi carried a cartoon of a
leader’s statue covered with Corona mask which enraged the DMK as it felt that
the statute resembled that of its founder C N Annadurai.
The newspaper office was bombarded with protest calls and
the DMK chief shot off a letter to the editor strongly condemning the artist
and the magazine. A campaign was launched in social media to condemn the daily.
What is surprising to the people of Tamilnadu is the height
of hypocrisy by the so called intellectuals, leaders, cine artistes and self
proclaimed rationalists who do not hesitate to gang up to support contents that
offend national sentiments, Hindu tradition or Hindu deities in the name of
Press freedom and freedom of speech. But
in this case they are tight lipped and do not want to give a chance for a
senior artist who has contributed a lot for journalism.
Without support from any quarter, the daily succumbed to the
pressure from the might political groups and not only expressed regret but is
believed to have agreed not to publish any more cartoons of Artist Mathi.
Certainly mistakes need to be pointed out but muzzling the
press with political force is not good for democracy in the state. This incident also exposes the
double standards of the liberals in the state.
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