“The political leaders, competing for power, in Shankar cartoons were seen maintaining strict discipline. If the same has to be drawn now, a huge power struggle would have been found instead,” said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy while inaugurating the Shankar memorial meeting organised on the sidelines of the 110th birth anniversary celebrations of Cartoonist Shankar.
The meeting was jointly organised by the Information and Public Relations Department (I&PRD), Government of Kerala and Kerala Cartoon Academy at Kanakakkunnu Palace here on Tuesday.
Before delivering a speech, he drew a cartoon on a paper kept on the easel.
Quoting about a cartoon which had appeared while he was serving as the president of the Youth Congress in the 1970s, the Chief Minister said that the state showed more tolerance towards cartoons than any other states.
“The symbol of the Congress was that of a cow and a calf then. When arguments brew up between the Youth Congress and the senior leadership in taking a decision on Congress joining the Achutha Menon ministry, a cartoon appeared showing the cow and the calf in dissonance,” he said. He also made a light remark that disheveled hair and torn shirt had provided an easy way to represent him on cartoons but now he has turned more conscious regarding his appearance.
Chandy called Shankar as the biggest contribution Kerala has gifted to the nation.
Cultural Affairs Minister K C Joseph, the chief guest on the occasion, said that a suitable memorial for cartoonist Shankar would be erected here, but the biggest hurdle the government face in this regard was the lack of space.
He also released a book ‘Shankar - Varayude Punarvayana’ a book edited by cartoonist Sudheernath by handing over a copy to cartoonist Yesudasan.
K Muraleedharan MLA, who presided over the function, said that cartoons lost their significance when it was used for tarnishing a person’s image. “A cartoon pointing out the mistakes in a person’s action has its worth. The dignity of cartoons is lost once it crosses that limit,” he said.
Cartoonist Toms, Kerala Public Service Commission chairman K S Radhakrishnan, Kerala Cartoon Academy chairman Prasannan Anikkad and I&PRD secretary T J Mathew were also present.
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