It was only a day later at 5.59 pm on 16 February that Vikatan got an official notice from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that its website had been blocked pending an inquiry by an interdepartmental committee meeting under the Information Technology Act, 2021, ThePrint has learnt.
However, the order did not state the reasons for the action.
Vikatan said the group’s website was blocked after its digital-only magazine Vikatan Plus published a cartoon showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting shackled alongside US President Donald Trump on 10 February.
“The cartoon in no way affected foreign relations and it only reflected the silence of the Union government over Indians being brought to India with their hands and legs tied,” Murugan said.
“We are undeterred by such actions. The only thing new in this is that we have learnt about the new draconian IT rules, which enable the government to immediately block the content without seeking any explanation from the media,” Murugan added.
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Past skirmishes with the government
Founded in 1928 by S.S. Vasan, the Vikatan group has grown from a single publication—Ananda Vikatan—into a network of at least seven print magazines and two digital magazines, along with several YouTube news channels covering everything from politics and economics to cinema and fashion
This is not the first time Vikatan has clashed with authorities.
Before the latest crackdown on Vikatan magazine by the BJP-led Union government, past AIADMK and DMK-led state governments have also taken it to court for defaming their leaders and parties over cartoons and articles.
Former Readers’ Editor of The Hindu and Roja Muthiah Research Library fellow A.S. Panneerselvam said that for nearly 99 years since its launch, Ananda Vikatan has consistently taken on the government through its cartoons, including in its investigative publication, Junior Vikatan.
“Vikatan’s cartoons have become part of the Tamil media landscape and they are the only Tamil media organisation who have been doing it with visual aesthetics. Cartooning should not be taken as offensive, but should be taken in the sense of constructive criticism,” said Panneerselvam.
Vikatan, known for its sharp political satire, has always faced pressure from Tamil Nadu state governments regardless of the party in power. The DMK has filed defamation cases against it during various tenures, though generally fewer than the AIADMK.
During the 2006-11 DMK administration, the ruling party filed as many as 50 defamation cases against the media and opposition parties, of which 10 were against the Vikatan group over articles critical of the government.
“It is rare that the DMK files a defamation case, but they mostly go for public rebuttals by criticising us and our article on their mouthpiece Murasoli,” Murugan said.
However, in 2019, when the DMK was the opposition party, the DMK and current Chief Minister M.K. Stalin filed a defamation suit against Vikatan over an article in Junior Vikatan on 8 May, 2019, alleging that the party received a Rs 500 crore donation from lottery baron Santiago Martin.
The AIADMK was more aggressive.
Between 2011 and 2021, it filed about 230 defamation cases against media and opposition, of which 20 were against Ananda Vikatan and Junior Vikatan.
“One of the defamation cases was filed by former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa herself for criticising her performance in the Manthiri-Thanthiri series,” a former journalist with Vikatan told ThePrint.
Earlier, during AIADMK rule from 1991-1996, 140 defamation cases were lodged against the media, with Vikatan the prime target of the then Jayalalithaa government.
It was not just the defamation cases. In a notable case, the AIADMK government led by former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran even imprisoned the magazine’s editor and son of the magazine’s founder, Balasubramanian, for three days over a cartoon that allegedly defamed the state Assembly.
Aval Vikatan’s editor, S. Arivazhagan, recalled how his boss did not let the matter rest and took it to the court.
“Balasubramaniam challenged the arrest and imprisonment in the Madras High Court, arguing it violated legal norms and free speech. In 1994, the court ruled that the Assembly’s actions were unconstitutional, as the Speaker had prejudged Balasubramanian’s guilt without due process or referral to the Privileges Committee, exceeding legislative authority,” Arivazhagan said.
“The imprisonment was declared void, and the court awarded Balasubramanian Rs 1,000 as compensation for the wrongful detention,” he added.
Balasubramanian framed a photocopy of the cheque along with two Rs 500 notes and the newspaper clipping about the case as a memento.
Fighting for freedom of expression since colonial days
Vikatan’s fight for freedom of expression dates back to the British.
In 1930, the magazine printed a blank cover to protest against a British government decision seeking financial surety for the Ananda Vikatan printing press office.
On the second page, it published a story under the title, “Bail sought for the Ananda Vikatan Printing Press office”, refused to give the surety and stopped publication for the next two months.
The editor and publisher of Aval Vikatan, Nanaya Vikatan and Pasumai Vikatan said it wasn’t the only time they came under the British government’s scrutiny.
“During the British period itself, our organisation came under attack twice. In 1942, Vikatan was fined Rs 500 for publishing a cartoon criticising Britain’s imperial rule. The organisation paid the fine and continued work,” said S. Arivazhagan.
He also remembered how former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted the cartoonist Shankar to criticise him.
During the launch of Shankar’s satirical magazine, Shankar’s Weekly, in May 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru famously told the cartoonist “Don’t spare me, Shankar”.
“It reflected Nehru’s openness to criticism and his appreciation for the role of political satire in a democracy. He encouraged Shankar to continue his sharp and fearless commentary through cartoons against the ruling government. But that is lacking in the present-day political scenario,” Panneerselvam said.
Arivazhagan also recalled how more scathing cartoons have been published about former PM Manmohan Singh.
“In 2010, when there were reports that the government under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had authorised the tapping of phones belonging to politicians and journalists, we published a cartoon of Manmohan Singh in which he was naked and covered with the landline receivers of telephones,” Arivazhagan recalled.
“We don’t think the recent cartoon is as scathing as the one during the Manmohan Singh period,” he said.
Vikatan Chief Cartoonist Hasif Khan, who drew the recent cartoon that came under the scrutiny of the Union government, said it was an expression of the ruling government’s “predicament” as hundreds of Indians were being deported by the US.
“The cartoon just portrays how despite being in a friendly relationship with the US president, our prime minister was not able to talk about the manner in which our Indian citizens were treated. It was just an expression of that predicament,” Hasif Khan said.
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Legacy of Vikatan media
Although Ananda Vikatan’s editor Murugan says the group was undeterred by the government’s actions, he also acknowledged that their freedom of thought and expression may not remain the same.
“It is only in the last 10 years that we feel throttled by the ruling government at the Centre. We have never felt such scrutiny any time before,” Murugan said.
However, he added that they had not passed on the anxiety over the censorship to the reporters as they were the pillars of the organisation.
Former Vikatan editors emphasised that the magazine had always questioned the people in power irrespective of the political party.
One former editor, Athisha, said the legacy of the media lies in its commitment to questioning power and being critical of the government’s policies at both the state and Central levels.
“When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation, the newsroom was abuzz without knowing the consequences, but after several hours of discussion, the editorial decided to be critical of the decision and the management was also in favour of the decision,” he said.
He also recalled that the magazine stood by its decision to support the famous Jallikattu protest in 2017. “At the same time, when the police excesses happened at the end of the Jallikattu protest, the magazine wrote a scathing editorial against the state government,” Athisha shared.
Murugan describes this approach as “being with the people”. Asserting that the magazine holds no bias against any individual or issue, he said, “We have always sought to stand by the people and reflect their concerns. That’s what has made us survive for close to 100 years.”
Another former editor of a Vikatan magazine, Bharathi Thami, said reporters always had the freedom to think independently without self-censorship.
“We didn’t need to bother about anything and any consequences. We could report on anything and everything. We had the freedom to reflect our anger through words. Because the management and the editors never censored our thoughts and were always receptive to our ideas,” said Bharathi Thambi.
Still, every now and then, the magazine has also been accused of political bias. After the recent cartoon, the media house was trolled for being a supporter of the ruling DMK government.
Murugan said such accusations weren’t new for Vikatan.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, we published a cartoon criticising the state government over the recent sexual assault case inside a college campus. The DMK, in its mouthpiece Murasoli, criticised us in one full page and DMK supporters termed us as ‘Sanghi’. Now, after this cartoon, they call us ‘Udhanpirapu’ (meaning brother, a word used to refer to DMK cadres). But people know that we always stand by them,” Murugan said.
Cartoonist Hasif Khan said he has been criticised for his work in the past too.
“As a cartoonist, I draw cartoons based on the issue and based on the editorial decision of the office. Whenever something like this happens, people ask, ‘Why were you silent during the previous government?’. But the fact is, I have also drawn cartoons during the previous government,” Khan said.
Vikatan’s student reporter scheme
The nearly century-old publication isn’t just known for its cartoons but also is credited for introducing over 2,000 journalists to the Tamil media landscape.
Murugan and Arivazhagan said that they both began their careers as student reporters at Vikatan in 1988 and climbed up the ladder to become editors.
Vikatan started its student reporter scheme as early as in 1983 and has trained at least 50 journalists a year since then.
Karpagavalli Murugesapandian, a former student reporter from the 2018-19 batch, credited Vikatan for her entry into journalism.
“Had it not been for Vikatan, I would not have even come out of my native village Kamudhi in Ramanathapuram district,” said Karpagavalli Murugesapandian, now a freelance journalist and IAS aspirant.
“After having been selected as a student reporter, I started working in Madurai district, covering uncovered issues and the magazine even gave space for a student reporter like me in its Junior Vikatan, which is regarded as a space for senior journalists,” she recalled.
Other former editors of the magazine also began as student reporters.
Bharathi Thambi said she started as a student reporter in 2000 before he became the editor of the magazine. He is now a script and dialogue writer for movies and television serials.
“Vikatan is the important reason for bringing people from downtrodden and marginalised communities into mainstream journalism, which was largely occupied by only a section of the community in those days,” Bharathi Thambi recalled.
Murugan emphasised how the organisation continues to evolve with younger generations.
“Instead of saying that Vikatan taught them, we should say that Vikatan is learning from the upcoming generations,” Murugan said.
“It was a student reporter’s idea to launch a special YouTube channel for lifestyle and we successfully launched the ‘Say Swag’ channel. It was a student reporter who taught the senior team here how to edit Instagram reels to catch more eyeballs.”
Editors also recalled how student reporters had transformed the magazine’s writing style, bringing it closer to the people.
“It was Vikatan that first adapted the colloquial style of writing according to the regional Tamil dialect of the people in the state. It was this diversity that has kept the organisation vibrant despite being the oldest magazine in the state,” said Arivazhagan.
The road ahead
According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Vikatan’s website was blocked under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which allows the government to block access to information to protect national security and friendly relations with foreign countries.
Senior journalists in Tamil Nadu condemned the move as an assault on democracy and freedom of expression. Retired journalist Bhagwan Singh termed it a “bullying tactic” by the Union government.
“The action is totally uncalled for. Tamil Nadu has seen former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who has filed over 100 cases against the same Vikatan media and withdrawn them months before the election. Whichever party is in power, they just steamroll and scare the media,” Bhagwan Singh told ThePrint.
Journalist unions in Chennai also denounced the decision.
“Even going by the IT rules, the cartoon does not violate any of the rules stated in the act. Cartoons are a way of expressing a complex subject to make the common people understand. The cartoon has served its purpose,” Haseef, general secretary of Chennai Press Club, told ThePrint.
The inter-department committee concluded its inquiry on 20 February and the magazine is waiting its final orders.
“Once we get the final orders, we will decide the further course of action and will approach the court against the action taken on us,” Murugan said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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