Rare collection of cartoons on PM to be released (PTI)

A rare collection of 123 cartoons on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by leading cartoonists from India and abroad, will be released next month, symbolising the123 agreement of the Indo-US nuclear deal.The cartoons will be released by the Kerala Cartoon Academy in Kochi.Singh himself is expected to attend the function to receive the book and the exact date will be finalised after hearing from the PMO, Academy Secretary N B Sudheernath told PTI.

Works by former "Aajkal" cartoonist Kutty, Kesav and Surendra of The Hindu, Marathi cartoonist Prashanth Kulkarni,Manoj Chopra (Jammu), Shyamal Banerjee (Kolkata) besides Yusuf Rana of Pakistan and John Cox of the US have been included in the book, he said.
Rajendra Puri, Unni, Ajith Ninan, Sudhir Thilang,Ravishankar, Ponappa, Narendra Gujjarappa,Peter,Prasannan Anikkad,Nathan,Thomas,Rejeendrakumar,Unnikrishnan,Raju Nair,Gopikrishnan, Sujith,are among the other prominent cartoonists whose drawings find a place in the collection.
Interestingly, cartoons of three politicians, including M M Monaye (Chairman,Kerala Cartoon Academy),Raj Thackeray (Maharashtra) and M K Muneer (Kerala), have also been included.
The book also has an Arabic Calligraphy by Khaleelullah chemnad depicting the Prime Minister as "Doctor Manmo" in the body text, "Han" inthe face and "Singh" in the turban, he said, adding the number of cartoons had been restricted to 123 to add political significance.Twenty five of the 123 cartoonists were NRIs, while 63 of them were members of the academy, he added. PTI