Government is Becoming More Intolerant feat. Manjul

The Indian government has been regularly asking Twitter to take down posts especially of those who are critical of it. Recently, it told Twitter to remove the tweets of a few people, and one of them was the cartoonist Manjul, whose cartoons appear all over the place. No one knows which particular department wrote to Twitter, but the social media platform, in the notice that they sent to Manjul, said, "We are writing to inform you that Twitter had received a request from Indian law enforcement regarding your Twitter account @MANJULtoonsz that claims that the content violates the laws of India." No details are available on what particular tweets violate which laws of India.

Shortly after this happened, it emerged that this notice is office sent out two account holders. Manjul simply ignored it and went about his work but almost immediately after, his contract with a news portal was abruptly cancelled. The cartoonist has been in the business for many many years, but rarely talks to the media or even publishes his photos online. His cartoons are very sharp and I think they speak for themselves. In the past, Manjul has been critical of past prime ministers and governments as well.

Manjul joins host Sidharth Bhatia on this episode of The Wire Talks to talk about the background to what is happening, his philosophy to cartooning, and a little bit about his early days.

Sidharth and Manjul also talk about whether Manjul ever got pressure when criticising previous governments and PMs, the types of journalists and editors running news outlets today, why this government seemingly gives more importance to Hindi news, the cartoonists who inspire him, and more. Tune in to this amazing conversation.

Follow Manjul on Twitter and Instagram: https://twitter.com/MANJULtoons and

https://instagram.com/manjultoons

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Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah

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