News n views

The controversy over the 1949 cartoon in a 11th class textbook published by NCERT, depicting Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Chief Architect of the Indian Constitution sitting on a snail with a whip in his hand and at his back the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru chasing the snail ( or Dr Ambedkar? ) again with a whip in his hand and a large gathering of people laughing at them, created an uproarious scenes in the Parliament. Dalit activists protested against the publication of the cartoon calling it an insult to the father of the Indian Constitution. The Indian  media had its share of, for and against news coverage mostly against the Dalit protests as a sign intolerance and overreacting on a small matter. Their argument is: A cartoon is meant for fun and not to be taken seriously. Yes! Cartoon is a cartoon. But where it finds place and what is the target group it aims to reach are the two important questions to be answered fairly to judge the efficacy the cartoon. Going by this, it can be said that the said cartoon is misplaced and does not go well with the content of the book