Team Herald
MARGAO: Tiatrist John D’Silva has filed a police complaint at the Margao police headquarters and Cyber crime cell against one Prashant Parab for using his photograph in a cartoon that has been circulated on a Facebook group mocking the recently launched LED scheme of the government.
The cartoon depicts a satirical conversation between comedians John and Selvy poking fun on the distribution of LED bulbs. The same cartoon had gone viral on social media.
While the tiatrist’s decision has sparked a debate, the tiatrist who is also a popular comedian and singer has lashed out at Prashant for using his name and photo without his consent and alleged that Prashant had done so to spoil his reputation through the cartoon.
The livid tiatrist questioned why Prashant had created the cartoon using his name when he could have used his own image/name or taken to other media including the print and TV media to criticise the LED scheme. John said that he had taken very bad offence to the tactic of Prashant of attacking the scheme using his name. If Prashant wanted to personally criticise the scheme or anyone wanted to criticise, they were other forums to do so. Questioning Prashant’s motive, John said that Prashant should have used his own or the people who had instigated him to come out with such a cartoon and not his.
John further stated that as tiatrist, he had never criticised any particular politicians or government in his tiatrs, songs (cantaram), comedy , VCDS, films and that is why this was upsetting as this was against his philosophy. He added that he has used the tiatr to give social messages to awaken the people but had never crossed the line or made any personal criticism, as that was not his style.
While the tiatrist’s decision has sparked a debate with many people expressing their disapproval of the complaint given that tiatrist and especially comedians are known to take make such jokes and satire, there are many who have supported John’s decision saying he had every right as it is wrong to use someone’s identity without his consent in such cartoons.
Meanwhile, another division in the debate is that people have taken offence to John’s statement to the media where he praised the LED scheme and thus indirectly the government, while others who have defended say that John is entitled to his opinion and that criticism of John has been unfair.
