Modi said cartoonists were ‘closer to God’. Thanks to his govt, they are just as invisible

In December 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said cartoons have healing power and cartoonists are “closer to god”, while congratulating the family of the late RK Laxman for digitising his iconic cartoon series ‘Common Man’.

Satish Acharya, one of India’s sharpest media cartoonists, now finds his Instagram account withheld in India, with no notice or reason afforded, according to screenshots available on X. Even some of his cartoons published in 2023 are being blocked, Acharya said on X, suggesting the Modi government’s sense of offence has a long memory. His verdict on the episode was rather emphatic: “I have never seen a govt which is SO SCARED of cartoons!”

Nobody has said what triggered it, but the likeliest candidate is his recent cartoon on the Election Commission. In it, the Chief Election Commissioner is seen telling two dissenting commissioners that their objections were “never ignored”. Then he gestures at a paper-stuffed bin: “They've been preserved!” A note in the corner says two Election Commissioners objected on record to poll-panel steps 14 times in ten months. 

This experience was not limited to Acharya. Cartoonist Manjul, also a contributor to Newslaundry, has had the same experience. 

His cartoon on decision-making in the Commission, drawn as an EVM where a finger presses Vivek Joshi’s button and the VVPAT slip reads Gyanesh Kumar, has been restricted in India. He reposted it with Instagram’s notice, which says access is restricted “pursuant to a notice from the Government of India/Law Enforcement” under local laws. Outside India, the cartoon is still visible. Indians are the only audience being protected from the joke.

None of this is new. In late February 2026, Newslaundry reported that at least three sets of cartoonists and one publication had faced restrictions citing requests from Haryana law enforcement or central authorities. Gaurav Sarjerao’s Instagram account was made inaccessible in India within hours of a single Modi-Trump post being restricted. Seven reels by Kolkata illustrators Bob and Bobby were blocked. 

Acharya had also received notifications over critical cartoons, including one from X citing a Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Department request over a cartoon showing arms of the state forming a human chain around Gautam Adani. In none of these cases was the legal provision disclosed, and questions about which office formally initiated or routed the requests went unanswered. In the two months before that report, Haryana Police, working with the Union IT ministry, had facilitated the removal of 1,616 posts. 

Over a month later, we reported on posts withheld on X without explanation or a chance to appeal, which legal experts deemed “secret censorship”. Among the works affected was a Rakesh Ranjan cartoon based on a Scroll report that a leading beef exporter donated Rs 30 crore to the BJP in 2024-25. Works by Sarjerao, Acharya and Manjul were also removed. The targets were largely content questioning the prime minister or critiquing policy.

Last month, The Indian Express reported that the government issues a blocking order roughly every 68 seconds, about 1,275 a day, and lakhs of orders between March and June. At that pace, no one is reading what is being blocked. 

Despite possessing the full might of the Indian state, an army of spokespeople and trolls, and a compliant broadcast media, the Modi government seems rattled by people with nothing with their pens and imagination. The ‘Common Man’, it turns out, is welcome only when he stays silent. Expect the country to keep sliding on democracy and free-expression indices, and the government to keep blaming foreign conspiracies for the rankings, as content creator Akash Banerjee noted sardonically on X. 

In 2018, the Prime Minister said cartoons could heal. He forgot to say whom they would make sick.

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