An innocuous but hilarious cartoon drawn by KK Subhash, a young artist in Kerala, has earned the wrath of the powerful Kerala Catholic Bishop Council (KCBC) which has literally shown the “red card” to the Left Democratic Front Government asking the latter to reconsider its decision to select the cartoon for the State Award.

It was on Monday, the Kerala Lalithkala Akademi , an organisation under the Kerala Government for conserving and promoting visual arts announced the names of artists who have been selected for the 2018-2019 awards. Subhash’s cartoon featuring Franko Mulakkal, the tainted bishop of Punjab who was accused of molesting nuns working with him, was selected as the best political cartoon. The work, titled Viswasam Rakshathi (Malayalam for ‘Let the Belief Save Us’) had the image of Mulakkal with the holy stick carrying undergarments on it.

By Wednesday, the KCBC in a statement asked the Kerala Government to cancel the award as th art work had ‘insulted priesthood’ in an obscene manner. Varghese Vallikkattu, spokesman of KCBC said un a statement that the cartoon has hurt the religious sentiments of the Christians. “This action of the Kerala Government is a deliberate move to insult the Church as an act of vengeance as the former suspects that the minorities did not vote for the LDF in the recently held Lok Sabha election,” said Vallikkattu.

But Ramachandran, art critic and author s of the view that the Church was threatening the CPM-led government by accusing it of offending the sentiments of the minorities. ‘The Church, of late has been pressurising the government to take action against its own people who are not in the same page with the former on various issues. The action against Paul Thelekkatt, a widely respected priest is a proof of this attitude of the Church,” said Ramachandran.

Franko Mulakkal, who was accused of repeatedly raping nuns working with him was arrested and released on bail following police complaint against him. His arrest itself was a fall out of a series of fast unto death agitation undertaken by nuns as well as social activists in the state.

Meanwhile many cartoonists have come out in the open questioning the stance of the Church in this issue. “Kerala is known for cartoonists who lampooned the powers that be whenever there were aberrations in governance. One should not mix religion and religious sentiments with cartoons which are mirror images of omissions and commissions committed by people in power,” said Thomas Antony, secretary, Kerala Cartoon Akademy.