RK laxman was probably India's only chronicler of history in terms of smiles who had a pan-Indian appeal and was appreciated by all sections of society. To my mind, laxman's cartoons, featuring a bald bespectacled man, widely referred to as the ‘common man', was an invention that patented how people managed to survive despite the troubles they were surrounded by. laxman was a political cartoonist par excellence, and his creativity was inexhaustible. He was not just a cartoonist drawing fine lines; he was a commentator on contemporary affairs too.
Most politicians were quite put off when they were featured in his cartoons. From the Shiv Sena to the BJP to the Congress, his cartoons spared none. His cartoons of lK Advani wearing a crown and riding a chariot, which I believe, ran for days after the Babri Masjid demolition, had peeved the BJP. His cartoon on Indira Gandhi's comeback, which cocked a snook at her Emergency image, had irked the Congress.