Pune: Cartoonist Alok Nirantar, whose creations feature prominently in Pune’s English daily Sakal Times and Marathi daily Sakal, won a Special Jury Appreciation Award in the 11th Maya Kamath Memorial (MKM) Awards Competition 2018, which took place in Bengaluru.  The competition recognises excellence in cartooning under different categories. 

“The cartoon is a comparison of the past and the present Prime Ministers vis a vis their silence on all the matters concerning the country. And a humorous take on the current PM’s foreign tours,” said Nirantar. 

Other cartoonists that received the special jury award were Manoj Chopra from Jammu & Kashmir and Prabhakar Wairkar from Mumbai. 

The competition, organised by the Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC), received 109 entries for the Awards for Excellence in Political Cartooning, 33 entries for Best Budding Cartoonist Award and 122 for Best Foreign Cartoon Award. Most of the cartoons were a reflection of the current political and social scenario of the world.

Maya Kamath was an Indian cartoonist. After her death in 2001, her husband founded the MKM Awards Competition under the shelter of  Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC) in 2008. 

The cash prizes of the competition will be given away at an exhibition of the selected cartoons on July 6, 2019 at Indian Institute of Cartoonists in Bengaluru.