In 2012, a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist had said, “A pencil is not a weapon. It’s just a means of expression” (after the magazine’s spoof on Prophet Muhammad came under attack). Creative people play with innovative ideas, new expressions and experiments, instead of slaving under the so-called rules of sentiment. Is religion the wealth of self-announced protectors whose belief is to kill people brutally for criticismIJ When a painter or a cartoonist draws, his or her creation cannot be directed or dictated by so-called dogmas. Cartoons are just expressions of creative and individualistic thoughts and not pointed insults.
When a cartoonist offers the common people wit, fun and intellect, he or she shows the way for a better living, and inculcates in the people a desire to laugh at themselves and the situations around them — as also brood over them. Killing creative personalities will only lead to more such creations. ‘Make fun, not war’, and ‘Ink should flow, not blood’, are today’s slogans.