Cartoonist out of jail, vows to fight sedition law

Political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, facing the charge of sedition among others, walked out of Arthur Road   Jail on Wednesday, a day after the Bombay high court ordered his release on bail.

Soon after being released, an upbeat Trivedi said his cartoons will now get sharper and critical. 

Addressing mediapersons at the Press Club, the Kanpur-based cartoonist said, “My cartoons will only get sharper and critical with time. We will fight till the time the sedition law is repealed.” 

Activist Binayak Sen, who too was slapped with similar charges, was present in the press conference. He said the course of “fight” will have to be decided by “all and not just him”.

Supporting him on the cause was Sen. “We have formed an organisation and are collecting signatures for the repealing of the sedition law,” said Sen.

Trivedi said in the times of social media, the readers should be deciding the rules. “In the times of social media when everyone is a writer, the readers should be deciding what they want to see and not the government,” he said.

"My fight will continue till the time the sedition charges framed on me are scrapped. They are Raj-oriented and not democracy oriented,” he said.

When asked if he felt that his cartoons were offensive and if he considered them to be wrong as they insulted national symbols, Trivedi said, “Parliament and the Constitution is insulted when people throw cash in the assembly and watch porn. They are insulting it.”

Vowing to continue his fight for freedom of expression, Trivedi said, "My cartoons are like a mirror. They reflect the truth as it is. I never felt that I have committed a smallest mistake through my cartoons."