Be it Bharat Darshan or farmers’ suicide, Bibhu Prasad Acharya, the IAS officer and the Special Chief Secretary, Planning Department, Government of Telangana, looked at difficult situations in a different way. What came out of it was witty cartoons.
“We often tend to look at things from an acute angle with a critical look. But in every event, there is perhaps an ‘obtuse angle’ that a cartoonist tries to look for. A funny side,” says Bibhu. Talking about his inspiration, he says, “I was stunned by the works done by the masters such as R.K. Laxman, Kutty and Mario Miranda. and I try to emulate them.” But being a cartoonist at heart and a civil servant by profession wasn’t easy. “There were obvious restrictions about what I can draw and what I can’t. I couldn’t draw anything that’s political or religious, so I took a look at myself. As a civil servant, I tried to capture the funnier side of the mundane dealings with colleagues and politicians over the last three decades.”
Bibhu Prasad Acharya
He had never exhibited his work until recently. When asked why this sudden change of heart? He says, “Yes, some of my cartoons drawn under the series Mussoorie Miscellany from the period of 1983-84 were displayed on the wall journal of LBSNAA. A few other works were published in the IAS bulletin of AP covering an array of bureaucratic issues, but I had never thought to exhibit them. This is the first civil service week being celebrated after the formation of the state of Telangana, so a few of my friends asked me to do it.”
There are 28 works on display at Goethe Zentrum from his collection of thousands. During 2006-10, Money life journal of Mumbai carried a monthly series of his cartoons having economic overtones under the caption Obtuse Angle. He was also a Member of the Jury for the International Cartoon competitions conducted by Cartoonists’ Forum. He has worked as an Editor with authors Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (of Freedom at Midnight fame) for editing the personal papers of Lord Mountbatten.
