This Emergency anniversary cartoon is a scathing indictment of India’s media today

Marking 46 years of Emergency, imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Indira Gandhi, the cartoonist Manjul has released his latest work that is a scathing indictment of the Indian media today.

The cartoon shows how the press was suppressed and heavily censored during the Emergency and compares it to how it has voluntarily operated under Narendra Modi’s government.

For his work critical of the Modi government, particularly on its handling of the pandemic, Manjul has been in the crosshairs. He was recently informed that the government had moved legally to take action against his Twitter handle for allegedly violating the “laws of India”, without listing any specific offences. At the time, he had described it to Newslaundry as “pure intimidation”. A few days later, Network 18 suspended its contract with Manjul with “immediate effect”.