PM Modi invokes the ‘Common Man’ | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: A one-man theatre performance, postal stamps, a Google doodle, mentions in Salman Rushdie books, films, inspiration for multiple TV series, a number of statues — political satirist-cartoonist RK Laxman‘s Common Man has been endlessly celebrated, the wit unsurpassed, the satire ever relevant. His brisk draughtsmanship and immaculate timing on all things ‘Indian’ and ‘Politician’ has left no reader untouched, no politician unscorched.

Since 1951, when it first appeared in a series ‘You Said It‘ in the Times of India, that ran decades till Laxman’s health allowed, Common Man’s journey echoed the average Indian’s. As jurist Nani Palkhivala put it: “The forward looking common man in 1947 turned into the disappointed man of 1952, battered in 1956 and shattered in 1963.” On the one hand, Laxman captured the common man’s follies, trials and tribulations. On the other, there was no weapon deadlier than his pen to lay low the mighty — the politician and the elite.
So, it was a delight, if not a surprise, that PM Narendra Modi cited the Common Man at a recent event. PM said he had lived alongside, had known the life of, that commoner, who otherwise was taken note of only through Laxman’s Common Man. Reality was, Modi said, beyond Laxman’s depiction, there was little value accorded to the common people. Undoubtedly, RKL would have delighted in putting pen to paper on this high praise as well.