Cartoon award row: cultural secretary to decide the award

Thrissur: Keeping the issue alive after a lull, the government on Wednesday said that the secretary of Cultural affairs would decide on revoking the award for the controversial cartoon depicting the disgraced Bishop.

The government has directed Kerala Cartoon Academy to convene a meeting in the presence of cultural affairs secretary to decide whether cartoon was sacrilegious to religious symbols.

The directive wants cartoonists to be included in the panel; given the new situation, the academy would convene a meeting again, said Ponnyam Chandran, academy secretary.

However, the date of the meeting and participants of the meeting have not yet been decided, he said.

As per the bylaw of the academy, meeting of the academy should be held in every two months.    

 The meeting of executive and general council of the academy, held last on June 17, threw its weight behind the cartoon.  Both the meeting found the cartoon as not insulting religious symbols.