So here is the thing. We are living in an India where voices can be muffled, and young cartoonists can be jailed for creative dissent and protesters can be beaten up and shown that the State is intolerant of inconvenient points-of-view whether they are about dams or nuclear plants or corruption. And it is not at all accidental that Anna Hazare within the span of one year went on from being a potential political game-changer  to a comical stick figure who we all foolishly expected to come to life and save the country. Hazare is not charismatic or the right ‘stock’ and some of his ideas are short-sighted and debatable but in a country suffering from a  collective loss of self-belief and integrity, he represented hope and idealistic innocence. But yes, he wasn’t intellectual enough or shrewd enough and his decision to enter politics and fight fire with fire after being systematically targetted by the government and certain sections of the media,evoked titters of derision. Ah, here it comes. What we all expected. Ambition. The man is not just out to fight corruption but to gain power in the very system that he critiqued.

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Did the titters even decipher what they were conveying? That the system we vote for every five years is so corrupt that anyone who enters is likely to do it only to gain something? That we are so past redemption as a nation that those who want to change it by joining politics are doomed to fail or worse still, to get corrupted?
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A Facebook friend recently posted her experiences from a Pune protest that she joined to support Anna Hazare. She shared the way senior citizens and even the daily wage workers on the streets were moved by the proceedings and became a part of the peaceful protest in one way or another. How she was dragged away along with other protesters to jail only so that she and others like her would be intimidated to not come back the next day. Did the media report it? No. It only reported that Anna’s charisma had faded, the numbers of followers had dwindled and that this movement that had promised so much had finally been reduced to nothing. If people like Anna are really so ineffectual, then how come, the State targets them and their followers deliberately, repeatedly and why are we seeing so much insecurity in centres of power over the use of social media as a medium of protest?
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The fact that Aseem Trivedi, an Anna follower and a young, fiery 24-year-old was thrown into jail over a cartoon, speaks for itself . Within hours of Aseem’s arrest, the social networking sites went into an overdrive, his cartoons were shared, people were signing petitions and more dissenting cartoons were being churned out by the hour. A few interesting and relevant points were made. Including the most important one that making fun of corruption is not unpatriotic. That netas are not apt symbols of democracy. That those who are letting the Constitution down the most are the ones who have been voted to protect it and not those who see corruption for what it is and want to give it a face, a name, an address. That it is important for the young voices in the country to taunt those who have become used to a colluding media and collective silence.
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After his release, Aseem Trivedi addressed the press and it was heartening to see a young Indian passionately articulating his point-of-view in a country where we seldom if ever hear a voice other than that of a politician or a journalist or a political mouth-piece, but sure enough, within hours, you saw Aseem being discredited by a few self-appointed intellectuals on Times Now, for believe it or not, the lack of artistic merit! As if that  was or is the issue here! As if his lack of humour or his skills as a cartoonist are at the heart of the debate! A 24-year-old was angry enough with the system to protest against it the only way, he knew how. And it touched a raw nerve. And a collective chord. So why this sudden irrelevant debate about how good or bad he is as a cartoonist?
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How many journalists who anchor debates on television or write about politics are judged more for their professional merit than the issues they raise? Or is there some other agenda here? To discredit someone who like Anna Hazare must be cut down to size because he does not fall into a pattern that serves the media and those in power?
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Who cares whether Aseem Trivedi is the best or the worst cartoonist we have seen? What matters is that he cares about what is happening to this country and is unafraid to do something about it, even if it is by drawing a cartoon to mock Indian politics. And the fact that he was arrested, means that he rattled a few skeletons and bruised a few hides. Well, more power to him and to others like him. This country needs more young voices and untutored dissent to learn that protest cannot be judged, media managed or measured with cosmetic yardsticks. This debate is not about Aseem Trivedi’s talent. But the country that is more and more frequently clamping down on dissenters like him. That is what should be worrying us. Not whether a cartoon can make us laugh or not.
Reema Moudgil has been writing for magazines and newspapers on art, cinema, issues, architecture and more since 1994, is an RJ, hosts a daily Ghazal show, runs unboxed writers, is the editor of Chicken Soup for The Indian Woman’s soul, the author of Perfect Eight (http://www.flipkart.com/perfect-eight-9380032870/p/itmdf87fpkhszfkb?pid=9789380032870&_l=A0vO9n9FWsBsMJKAKw47rw–&_r=dyRavyz2qKxOF7Yuc ) and an artist.