Govt. humours MPs-may ban all text toons

          A humble letter from a teenager

Dear politicians,

I write this letter as an 18 year old teenager who has read those Civics books in school that have stirred a hornet’s nest in the parliament. Civics is a subject which is far from favourite for a large number of students. The vast amount of theory that has to be mugged up makes it a very dreadful subject. But thanks to the NCERT advisors who came up with the innovative idea of introducing cartoons in textbooks to make them more interactive.

I remember whenever I got bored of reading a chapter I used to flip through the pages, glance at those cartoons and have a chuckle. Contrary to politicians who scrutinized and analyzed a cartoon, as if it was India’s foreign policy and tried figuring out who exactly is being whipped in the cartoon-the snail or Dr.Ambedkar.

Yogendra Yadav, one of the NCERT advisors of these textbooks said in a news show that there was an article in the New York Times which mentioned that these books were a symbol of the fact that Indian democracy has gained a level of maturity. I am sorry to say but thanks to our politicians, now it’s been proved all wrong.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “Cartoons are for mature minds: not for children”. This brings me to a question-If these children are not being considered mature enough to understand even simple political cartoons at the age of 16 or 17,how exactly are they expected to vote at the age of 18 and decide which politicians should lead the country.

Seems like  Mamta Banerjee had set an ideal precedent for all politicians by reacting fiercely to an innocuous cartoon.If this is the kind of ‘poriborton’ that India is moving forward to, I would say-God bless our country!

Anyway, cartoons or no cartoons today teenagers in India do not think very highly of politicians. Not to mention the rampant corruption and viewing of pornographic videos inside the parliament. Stopping the distribution of these textbooks has erased even those residual hopes that one day teenagers in India will look up to the politicians and say, “I feel proud that people like these lead India”.

Yours sincerely,

A student

P.S.-I wish when this letter finds you, you will be debating over serious issues like the 70,000 tons of wheat rotting in the open(even as millions go hungry to sleep)and not over petty cartoons.