Toon time

The very measures designed to curb media freedom have allowed Nepali cartoonists to come of age

PESHAL POKHREL / Nepali Times

FROM ISSUE #253 (24 JUNE 2005 – 30 JUNE 2005)

Thescene is an editor’s office complete with computer, phone and clutteredtable. But sitting at the desk is a soldier in camouflage fatiguesscribbling away. The sign on the door says: ‘Editor-in-chief: In’.

Numerouseditorials have been written about the loss of press freedom afterFebruary First. Columnists have heaped scorn at the curbs. But that oneillustration by Nepal’s best-known cartoonist, Batsayan, said it mosteloquently of all.

His real name is Durga Baral and the53-year-old artist lives in Pokhara, which allows him a differentperspective on the absurd goings-on in the capital. The developmentswere ripe for ridicule. But in the fear-filled weeks after FebruaryFirst, Batsayan remembers being not so sure about how far he could go.

“Ididn’t want the editor to get into trouble just because of me, so Iheld myself back,” he recalls. But when he read the columns offellow-Kantipur contributor, Khagendra Sangraula and saw what HimalKhabarpatrika was getting away with, he decided to let himself go.

Batsayan’sbiting post-February cartoons boosted the morale of other editors andcartoonists. Playing cat-and-mouse with the censors, cartoonistsstarted going further and taking more risks than writers. Budhabarcartoonist Basu Kshitij’s illustration comparing Bhutan’s democracy toNepal’s raised the government’s hackles and editor Surya Thapa wassummoned to the CDO to explain. Ramesh Bista of Bimarsha Weekly had acartoon ready to go to press but the military ‘guest editor’ posted inthe newsroom had objections. Bista held his ground and threatened thatthe space would be left blank, so the censor relented and the cartoonwas printed.

Kantipur found two of Batsayan’s cartoons toorisqu? to print. One of them poked fun at the editors writing absurdeditorials on ballet dancing and smelly socks by portraying a newsroomscene in which an editorial was being prepared and titling it,’Delicious Momos, Possibilities and Challenges’. Uttam Nepal had aseries of cartoons poking fun at Ramesh Nath Pandey and Kirti NidhiBista but his paper, Rajdhani, said it would be too dicey to printthem.

“Therehas been an offensive to gag us and even my colleagues couldn’t digestmy cartoons,” says Nepal. But cartoonists didn’t give up and have beentaking the lead in probing the limits of what is permissible. RabinSayami has submitted cartoons to Himal Khabarpatrika and Jana Aasthathat make readers bite their tongues. One of them on 1 Baisakh was ofTulsi Giri wishing everyone, ‘Happy New Year 2017′. This was areference to the sacking by King Mahendra of BP Koirala’s electedgovernment in 1960. Another shows the king and the Maoists playingchess with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looking over boththeir shoulders.

Rajesh KC of Kantipur mocked the ban onmobiles with a cartoon of a garbage collector walking the streets witha sack shouting, “Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola” offering to buy the setsby the kilo. Editors admit that part of the reason they have morefreedom with articles and commentaries is because the cartoonists keptthe door ajar. One of the taboo subjects has always been the depictionof royalty. Even after 1990 and even on Gai Jatra papers, whencartoonists drew prime ministers as naked women, the royalty wasstrictly out of bounds. But since February First, when the monarchdescended to the level of everyday politics, the royalty is not spared.”If the king had remained a constitutional monarch, I guess we wouldn’tbe drawing him,” says Rabin Sayami.

It is not a cartoonist’sjob to make the subjects of their work happy or sad, says Sayami, andadds that the UML’s Madhab Nepal is livid about the way he is depictedas a wimp in cartoons. One favourite of cartoonists is Girija Koirala,the politician almost everybody loves to hate. With his large nose, badteeth and outsized spectacles, he is a cartoonists’ delight and appearson cartoons even when out of power.

If it appears thatcartoonists are more critical of the government than the Maoists, it isonly because they see that the press is being unnecessarily targeted asa result of the February First move. They wonder why press freedomshould be the casualty when the reason for the royal takeover was tocrush the Maoists.

Abin Shrestha of Samaya magazine sayscartoons need not always be humorous, they can expose misery,double-standards and sadness. He has even drawn cartoons of theterrorist attack on the bus on Madi showing a Maoist crocodile sheddingtears, saying: “We are saddened by this incident and like always wepromise through this statement that we will take every step necessaryto prevent it from happening again.”

Article link: http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/253/Update/467

कार्टुनको शक्ति कार्टुनिष्टको शान

नेपाली सञ्चारजगतका निम्ति कालो कालखण्ड ठहरिएको १९ माघपछिको अवधि राजनीतिक कार्टुन वा कार्टुन-पत्रकारिताका लागि पनि उत्तिकै चुनौतीपर्ूण्ा थियो । तर, आँट र सिर्जनात्मक क्षमता प्रयोग गरी प्रतिगमन र राजनीतिक, प्रशासनिक आदि विसङ्गतिहरूमाथि चोटिलो प्रहार गर्ने कुरामा संवाददाता, स्तम्भकार वा कतिपय सम्पादकहरूलाई समेत कार्टुनिष्टहरूले पछाडि पारे । कार्टुनको शक्ति र प्रभाव बढेकै हिसाबले नेपाली कार्टुनिष्टहरूको व्यावसायिक शान, मान र दाम पनि बढिरहेको पाइन्छ ।

पेशल पोख्रेल / हिमाल खबरपत्रिका

वर्तमान सत्ता र त्यसका र्समर्थकहरूले वकालत गर्न थालेको ‘राष्ट्रवादी’ शिक्षा र त्यसले पढाउने राष्ट्रवादको पाठ कस्तो होला भनेर बुझन २२ जेठ २०६२ को कान्तिपुर दैनिकमा प्रकाशित आमुख कार्टर्ुुहेरे पुग्छ । भावी पुस्तालाई व्यक्तिपूजक र पङ्गु बनाउने एउटा विसङ्गत योजनालाई उदाङ्ग पार्न व्यङ्ग्य-चित्रकार दर्ुगा बराल -वात्स्यायन) को त्यो एउटै झटारो पर्याप्त लाग्छ ।
यत्तिकै सटिक लाग्छ २१ जेठमा प्रकाशित वात्स्यायनकै ‘बसिबियाँलो’ । कुनै प्रकाशनको प्रधान सम्पादकको कार्यकक्षमा सैनिक पोशाकमा बसिरहेको एउटा चरित्रले विभिन्न नियन्त्रणमुखी ऐन/अध्यादेशमार्फ् सञ्चारमाध्यमलाई अपाङ्ग र कुण्ठित बनाउने सत्ताधारीहरूको कसरतलाई स्पष्ट देखाउँछ । अहिले सञ्चारमाध्यमहरूले भोगिरहेको त्रास र आतङ्कको प्रतिबिम्ब पनि हो त्यो ।