With church bodies raising their eyebrows over the State Lalithakala Akademi’s selection of a cartoon on former bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun, for the annual award, the State government has decided to ask the Akademi to review its decision.
Culture Minister A.K. Balan on Wednesday maintained that the selection of cartoons for the awards was done by the Akademi, with the government choosing not to interfere in the process, as it had always done.
The government had not interfered when Gopikrishnan’s cartoon, Kadakku Purathu (get out), which could have been interpreted as portraying Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan in poor light, was selected for the award last year. But the government upheld the right to free creative expression and it was Mr. Vijayan who presented the award to the cartoonist, Mr. Balan said.
He said that while the government believed in being fair and transparent regarding selection of works for awards, the cartoon, Vishwasam Rakshathi (Faith protects) by K.K. Subhash, originally published in Hasya Kairali magazine, which was selected for this year’s honour, had indeed depicted religious symbols in a manner that was derogatory.
“The government doesn’t question the cartoonist’s right to choose the issue involving the bishop as his theme. But then it illustrates certain Christian religious symbols in a denigrating fashion. Ours is a secular society with people of different faiths living in harmony. The government doesn’t intend to move on with any attempt to malign the beliefs of any religion. It cannot agree with such attempts,” Mr. Balan wrote on Facebook, explaining why the government has asked the Akademi to review the decision.
KCBC, Church oppose
Meanwhile, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) and the Syro-Malabar Church made strong statements against the selection of Mr. Subhash’s cartoon for the award. The cartoon, which featured an undergarment on the bishop’s staff, with a group of nuns taking flight, had the bishop pictured as sporting a rooster’s comb. Terming it incendiary, KCBC spokesperson Varghese Vallikat said the decision to honour the cartoonist had sent a wrong message to society.
“We are not raising it because Bishop Franco was depicted in the work. By using that case as a context, the cartoonist has insulted Christianity by drawing an objectionable picture on the Good Shepherd symbol,” he said.
Father Antony Thalachelloor, secretary of the Syro Malabar Media Commission, welcomed the State’s decision to review the award, but took exception to the chairman of the Akademi continuing to endorse the decision. The work was blasphemous, according to him.
Cartoon Academy
Meanwhile, Kerala Cartoon Academy secretary Thomas Antony rued the move to review the awards decided by a jury comprising senior cartoonists P.V. Krishnan, Sukumar and Madhu Omalloor. “Cartoon as a probing art will lose its meaning if its hands are tied, he said. It is unfortunate that humour is viewed using the spectacle of vested interests. May there be an atmosphere in which cartoons are enjoyed with an open mind,” he said.