What has become the face of the Delhi riots/pogram/genocide is a photograph by Danish Siddiqui. It is of a Muslim man, bloodied from the beatings, protecting himself by doing, what appears to be the sajdah, the act of prostration during namaaz. As if the memories associated to this position made him feel safe as it did all his life whenever he had offered his obeisance to Allah.
Rehashing this iconic capture is a brazen illustration by Saswata Mukherjee where caricatures of journalists with allegedly right-wing leanings wield the bamboo poles in place of the original goons. “Lest we forget our primetime newsmedia stars, who never missed a chance to demonise the protestors for the past four months...” he amuses in the caption.
This is his latest post on his Insta page that is packed with political illustrations and animated videos. From protests at Shaheen Bagh, JMI, JNU, riots in Kolkata conveyed in English and Bengali to standup comedian Kunal Kamra’s inflight fiasco with Arnab Goswami... almost all milestones of the anti-CAA protests are given a satirical bent on @bob_almost. Interestingly, the visuals are mostly co-signed with the anagram-ish handle (@almost_bobby) that belongs to his brother Susruta. The one who gets the idea posts the final illustration on his page, even though both work on completing the artwork. Without this tactic, it would’ve be hard to tell whodunnit.
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Saswata and Susrata are 26, fraternal twins, multimedia and animation graduates from Kolkata’s St. Xavier’s College and are now illustrators and aspiring filmmakers. Born into a typical Bengali household hooked onto politics, they credit their mother and elder brother Satadru for providing them with a steady diet of comics like Tintin, Asterix and political cartoons from India, the US and the UK.
The young guns claim to be introverts, who choose self-expression by experimenting with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro softwares, coupled with some praise and handholding by the likes of standup comedian Varun Grover, whom they consider friend and guide. Their 2:30 minute-long short film The Onlookers and Him (2019) hinting at India’s growing bystander effect, saw official selections and mentions in national and international film festivals.
In fact, their political cartooning took form post-2014, they say, is when they noticed the people they grew up with suddenly develop polarised opinions. Like diehard Shah Rukh Khan fans calling the superstar a terrorist after he spoke out against the rising intolerance in India, and shifting their fan base to Akshay Kumar.
From day one they’ve had their share of trolls. “We have been called commies and stooges of the TMC government. But we’ve made artworks about the episode when the doctors protesting for better hostel facilities got beaten up by TMC goons,” says Saswata, adding, “Even this post on Delhi riots, had someone comment that we should be arrested for instigating hate. But we condemn the violence in which the Delhi cop Ratan Lal was killed and the 85-year-old woman was burned. We do not outrage selectively, but believe in questioning the people in power,” he signs off.