As part of its dodransbicentennial celebrations, The Times of India has published “a cavalcade of cartoons over 175 years”. Titled “Jest in Time“, it is put together by Ajit Ninan, Neelabh Banerjee and Jug Suraiya. At its launch in New Delhi on Monday, seven well-known cartoonists—Sudhir Tailang from Deccan Chronicle, Manjul from Daily News and…
Tag Archives: R. Prasad
Free speech gets a major boost (in the a**)
So, young Indians cannot tell their friends in what they like on Facebook, without being “pre-screened” by Harvard types (or hauled into a police station by Shiv Sena goons). So, bloggers cannot publish their “online private diaries” without the sword of 66(A) hanging over their heads. So, tweeters can be blocked and Savita bhabhi‘s enviable…
Forget Ram Rajya, there is a new Ravana in town
On the last day of Dasara, Vijayadashmi—the day Lord Rama is rumoured to have defeated the demon-king Ravana, in newspaper parlance—The Times of India‘s chief illustrator Neelabh Banerjee presents a new ten-headed monster–from corrupt cops to cricket officials to doctors to businessmen to bureaucrats to politicians—to slay (Click to view a larger image). Also read:…
‘Darkest hour for media since the Emergency?’
Is it a good thing that the Supreme Court of India has not announced guidelines for media coverage of court cases? Or has it opened the floodgates by introducing a “neturalising device” that underlines the right of the accused to seek postponement of coverage on a case-by-case basis? And, by introducing a “constitutional principle” has…
What brainwave has struck our netas tonight?
Mail Today cartoonist, R. Prasad, salutes the geniuses in the Indian government using the trouble in Assam to play around with Facebook and Twitter, including by reportedly blocking the IDs of journalists Kanchan Gupta and Shiv Aroor. The latter has put up this image on his Twitter handle. Also read: Should Facebook be censored? Say…
Time, Sandesh and the six degrees of separation
As the row over Time magazine’s “Underachiever” cover line on prime minister Manmohan Singh engulfs primetime news, Mail Today cartoonist R. Prasad cuts through the post-colonial clutter. New York Times‘ India website IndiaInk has a gallery of past magazine covers on India, while Rediff compiles a slideshow of previous Time covers on Indians. Meanwhile, Prasad…
After the full-page report, the full-page ad
Mail Today‘s outstanding political cartoonist, R. Prasad, on the irony of newspapers running advertisements from the controversial truck maker, Tatra, when it is at the heart of a major corruption scandal involving the Indian Army. Among the newspapers which received the full-page ad is The Indian Express, whose controversial full-page report on the coup that…
Anchors, editors, motormouths & other nuisances
It’s that time of year once again, when columnists crawl out of their quilts, double-dip their quills in vitriol and go for kill (yes, it’s a punny time of year, too). The veteran journalist Jawid Laiq—with Indian Express, New Delhi, Economic & Political Weekly on his resume—does the needful in Mail Today, with a list…
How well is the PM’s media advisor advising him?
Of all the reasons being trotted out for prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s declining equity, his media management skills rank somewhere near the very top. Despite a full-fledged media advisor in his entourage, the bush telegraph is that Manmohan has been poorly served by Harish Khare, the former deputy editor of The Hindu. Although Manmohan Singh…
‘2G scam bribe was diverted to a TV channel’
As the effluent starts wafting towards the exhaust fan, journalists and media houses are sliding deeper down into the the 2G spectrum allocation scam that has already claimed a politician and two bureaucrats. A day after the arrest of the disgraced former telecom minister, A. Raja, The Times of India reports that the enforcement director…
Everybody loves a nice mutual admiration club
Ratan Tata, the bossman of Tata Sons in the middle of the 2G spectrum allocation scam following the outing of the tapes of the conversations of his chief lobbyist Niira Radia, has given an interview to Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express and host of NDTV’s interview programme, Walk the Talk. The text of…
Newspaper cartoon that’s offending the Israelis
After a cartoon on the racist attacks on Indians got under the skin of Australia, Mail Today asked the Aussies whether they had lost their sense of humour. Now, with Israel wailing about the paper’s depiction of the murderous commando action on the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, surely the paper is entitled to…
Where’s your sense of humour, paper asks Aussies
The editor of the Indian newspaper that published the “racist” cartoon on Australia’s tepid response to continuing attacks on Indian students in that country, has responded to the criticism. Bharat Bhushan, editor of Mail Today, the tabloid newspaper run by the India Today group, says in today’s issue that he hoped the angry reaction would…
The Indian cartoon that’s offending Australians
It takes a particular genius to feel offended by a piece of art instead of the reality it mirrors. Several students of Indian origin have been clobbered in Australia in an unceasing (and unacceptable) wave of attacks over the last few months; one of them even being killed last week. Yet, the response from both…
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