VIR DAS ROW: A LOOK AT INDIAN STAND-UP COMEDIANS WHO LANDED IN TROUBLE FOR THEIR ACT

Thu 18 November 2021:

With the growing calls for action against Vir Das for his new comedy monologue, the comedian joins the ever-expanding list of artistes who faced controversies, threats and legal troubles for their content about prevalent issues of India.

Mr Das, who recently performed at the John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, stirred a row with his six-minute satire video “I come from two Indias” in which he talked about the dual dark sides of the country.

The comedian, who is currently in the US, touched upon topical issues like the battle against COVID-19, incidents of rapes, farmers protests, crackdown against comedians and petrol prices, inviting the ire of a section of social media as well as politicians.

“I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang rape them at night,” Das told a packed Washington, DC venue during his current world tour.

Critics say there has been rising intolerance against minority communities in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and that freedom of speech is under threat in the world’s biggest democracy.

In an almost seven-minute long video posted Monday, he covered issues ranging from air pollution, journalism and Modi’s coronavirus relief efforts to cricket.

“I come from an India where we bleed blue every time we play green,” he said, referring to the sporting uniforms of his country and arch-rival Pakistan. “But every time we lose to green, we turn orange all of a sudden.”

Orange refers to muscular Hindu nationalism, often symbolized by the color saffron.

While there have been prominent voices in support of the comedian, including TMC member Mahua Moitra as well as Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, police complaints have been filed against him in Mumbai and Delhi.

But 42-year-old Vir Das is not the only comedian to have offended a section of people in Indian society as there have been several others including Munawar Faruqui, Kunal Kamra, Tanmay Bhat, Kiku Sharda, who have found themselves in similar situations.

Mr Faruqui was arrested on January 1 this year for passing allegedly indecent remarks about Hindu deities during a comedy show in Indore on New Year’s Day.

Mr Faruqui was lodged in Indore Central Jail following a complaint by a BJP MLA’s son for making the alleged remarks about Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and it was only after a month that he was released from prison.

Stand-up comedian and satirist Mr Kamra faced legal trouble as pleas seeking contempt of court action were filed against him for tweets against the court and the judges.

Attorney General K K Venugopal had last November consented to the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Mr Kamra for a series of tweets following the Supreme Court giving interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.

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