Mamata versus the cartoon: Why it's no laughing matter

The Mamata cartoon is no laughing matter. It’s easy to dismiss it as just another vagary of West Bengal’s mercurial chief minister. But it points to a harder truth. The Chief Minister is not entirely thin skinned when it comes to criticism. She tolerates her own party’s MP Kabir Suman who has been penning open letters of criticism addressed to her and pops up on television to regularly harangue his party chief. Why did a relatively innocuous and unknown professor of chemistry push the CM’s buttons so? In all the analysis of that cartoon with a fine toothcomb it’s easy to forget the man did not even come up with the cartoon. He just forwarded it. [caption id=“attachment_276039” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Chief Minister is not entirely thin skinned when it comes to criticism. AFP”]  [/caption] But the charges against Ambikesh Mahapatra are bewildering. He is charged under Section 500 of the IPC for defamation. That can be a fine or two years of imprisonment. He is charged under Section 509 or insulting the modesty of a woman. That could be a jail term for a year. He is charged under Section 114 for an abettor being present when a crime is committed. He is also charged under the Information Technology Act 66A (b) for using a computer or communication device to spread information which he knows to be false for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury etc. That is punishable with three years in jail. If that Act is slapped on Ambikesh Mahapatra almost everyone with a Facebook or Twitter account should be thrown into jail. We can add those who forward Santa Banta jokes on email or through their Blackberry Messengers. The charges against Ambikesh Mahapatra’s might be dropped but the chilling message has already gone out. It’s not about whether Bengal has a sense of humour. This is not a comedy show. This is the iron fist of the state showing the people who is the boss here. The cartoon, which thanks to the police, now has become nationally viral, when once it was just viral in Bengal, does not distort the images of Mamata or her ministers. The CM railed against “oshlilota” or obscenity but the cartoon does not even use a mild expletive. Again it’s worth remembering Mahapatra did not come up with the cartoon. Since when is forwarding it a crime? (It is true he used a different official email than his own personal email to do that. He had already apologised for that. This is hardly a case of “hacking” as some Trinamool supporters tried to make it out to be on television.) If this cartoon outrages the modesty of a woman that is saying any cartoon about Mamata or even any editorial attacking her is tantamount to outraging the modesty of womankind. “Then any speech becomes impossible,” said Sukanta Chaudhuri, professor emeritus at Jadavpur University to The Telegraph. This is no laughing matter because this is also the woman who dismissed one rape case in the state as a “shajano ghatana” (fabricated story). Then she dismissed another because the victim’s deceased husband was a CPM worker. Mahapatra told television news that he had to sign a statement saying he was an active member of the CPM before he was allowed to leave the police station. Belonging to the CPM might annoy the CM but it’s hardly illegal. It’s equally ridiculous to think that the best the party could come up with in its conspiracy was this cartoon that could only be understood by fans of one particular Satyajit Ray film from 1971. Calcutta’s intelligenstia, many of whom had supported Mamata, are now speaking out against her. Economist Abhirup Sarkar, Mamata’s handpicked chairman of the expert committee on higher education said “I earlier did not want to use the word scary but I have to admit this scares me.” Mahasweta Devi called it “shameful.” Other Mamata supporters like theatre personality Shaoli Mitra went into a no-comments mode. Only the artist Shuvaprasanna defended his Didi complaining that the university professor was a “political activist” who had been SMSing and emailing Mukul Roy directly. Shuvaprasanna  said, “No one has the right to irritate or hassle someone directly.” This is the same Shuvaprasanna who once parodied Jyoti Basu by painting his version of The Last Supper. If anyone should be upset, it’s Sandip Ray, Satyajit’s son. After all, it is his father’s work that is being parodied here. But Ray is the grandson of Sukumar Ray who wrote Ekushey Ain, about a land of the absurd law. Here’s a bit from that poem in translation.

In Shiva’s homeland, the rules are quite strange, as I can truly attest, If someone slips, and falls by err, police come by to arrest. Your ordeal continues inside of a court room, Where judges are ready to fine you a fortune - 21 rupees is the price you must pay, but wait till you hear what they charge in the day - for sneezing before six, a ticket is needed, without this in hand, you will be ill-treated - they beat you like drums, and snuff up your nose, you sneeze not just once, but 21 blows!

But the tragedy here is there is nothing funny or absurd about the midnight knock on the door.