A prominent Indian comedian is standing by his right to make jokes after an angry mob attacked a comedy club where he had made an onstage jibe at a right-wing politician. <\/p>\n
Kunal Kamra, known for his quips about popular culture and politics, is under investigation for alleged defamation by police in the western state of Maharashtra after he told a joke about the state\u2019s Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The case is the latest to underscore the country\u2019s declining freedoms and the sensitivities of India\u2019s right-wing politicians, some of whom have called for the artist\u2019s arrest. <\/p>\n
A video of the skit, posted to Kamra\u2019s YouTube channel Sunday, shows the comedian apparently <\/strong>taking a jibe at Shinde. In the video, Kamra does not explicitly name the politician but, in a song, refers to a \u201cgaddar,\u201d or \u201ctraitor\u201d \u2013 taken to be a reference to Shinde\u2019s leadership of a rebellion in 2022 that caused the state\u2019s previous government to collapse. <\/p>\n The joke sparked a furious backlash within Shinde\u2019s Hindu supremacist Shiv Sena political party. An <\/strong>angry mob later <\/strong>descended upon The Habitat comedy venue where Kamra had performed in Mumbai. A video of the incident shows dozens of men \u2013 some wearing scarves with the Shiv Sena logo \u2013 smashing chairs and ripping the venue\u2019s interior apart. <\/p>\n Shiv Sena spokesperson Krishna Hegde said Kamra\u2019s words \u201cinsulted\u201d the people of Maharashtra. \u201cMumbai police should take Kunal Kamra into custody, arrest him, lock him up behind bars and open a case against him,\u201d he said in a video statement. <\/p>\n Another party lawmaker, Naresh Mhaske, warned that Kamra would be unable to walk in public. <\/p>\n \u201cLet alone Maharashtra, you won\u2019t be able to roam around in all of India,\u201d he said in a video statement. <\/p>\n Kamra has said he will not apologize for his comments and, in a post on X, criticized the \u201cinability to take a joke at the expense of a powerful public figure.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I know, it is not against the law to poke fun at our leaders and the circus that is our political system,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI don\u2019t fear this mob and I will not be hiding under my bed waiting for this to die down.\u201d <\/p>\n Some opposition politicians in Maharashtra have rallied to Kamra\u2019s defense in light of the political storm. Shinde\u2019s former political ally Aditya Thackeray said: \u201cOnly an insecure coward would react to a song by someone.\u201d <\/p>\n The Habitat said it was \u201cshocked, worried and extremely broken by the vandalism,\u201d and would be temporarily shutting down the comedy club. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have never been involved in the content performed by any artist but the recent events have made us rethink about how we get blamed and targeted,\u201d it said on Instagram, adding that the venue would be closed \u201ctill we figure out the best way to provide a platform for free expression without putting ourselves and our property in jeopardy.\u201d <\/p>\n This isn\u2019t Kamra\u2019s first run in with the law. <\/p>\n In December 2020, the Supreme Court held him in contempt of court for allegedly disparaging the judiciary and judges in his social media posts. In one Twitter post, he criticized the court\u2019s handling of a case involving a right-wing commentator. <\/p>\n Freedom of speech is enshrined in India\u2019s democratic constitution, but comedians in the world\u2019s largest democracy have previously faced the wrath of angry politicians for their jokes. <\/p>\n In November 2021, right-wing politicians called for comedian Vir Das\u2019 arrest after he gave a powerful monologue addressing the country\u2019s rape crisis and then-year-long farmer\u2019s protest. <\/p>\n At the time, Ashutosh Dubey, a legal adviser to India\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, accused Das of \u201cdefaming\u201d India and filed a complaint with the police over his \u201cinflammatory\u201d comments. <\/p>\n Das has not been formally charged with any crime and continues to perform. But others who have faced similar situations have had their livelihoods upended. <\/p>\n Kamra, meanwhile, said the new investigation into his comments \u201cdoes not change the nature of his right\u201d to make fun of politicians. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A prominent Indian comedian is standing by his right to make jokes after an angry mob attacked a comedy club where he had made an onstage jibe at a right-wing politician. Kunal Kamra, known for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Growing intolerance<\/h2>\n