Sing paeans to power or face the music.

In a crackdown on satire, another instance of state trying to bulldoze criticism, silencing dissent; Tirunelveli police arrested a cartoonist Bala for his work lampooning the indifference of the State which  led a family of four self-immolate recently at the Tirunelveli collectorate.

 The family was incessantly harassed by a loan shark despite repeated complaints lodged with the authorities resulting in the rural laborer killing himself, his wife and two daughters.

The cartoon in question, an upshot of frustration caused by the incident, depicts chief minister Edappadi  Palaniswamy, Tirunelveli district collector Sandeep Nanduri and superintendent of police P.Arun Sakthi Kumar, trying to cover up their private parts with a wad of currency notes while a child is ablaze in front of them.

The cartoonist was booked under section 501 (printing on engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).  

While Bala is out on bail now it's worth noting that this isn’t the first instance of gagging of free speech witnessed by the state. The message the rulers and their sidekicks seem to be sending out is: don’t call out the vain emperor with no clothes. Sing paeans to power or face the music.