India: comedian critic of the government is sued by ruling party reps
Event- Country
- India
- Initial Date
- Nov 17, 2021
- Event Description
Police complaints filed against an Indian comedian for a monologue he gave on the different facets of India, along with the cancelation of a series of shows that were to be given by two other comics have raised concerns about a growing climate of intolerance in India.
Stand-up comedy has become hugely popular in recent years in a country where young, savvy audiences are growing. However, a swelling tide of nationalism has also brought comedians under fire for jokes that poked fun at politicians, appeared to demean the country, or made references to religion or national icons.
The latest uproar was triggered by a six-minute speech given by one of India’s top comedians, Vir Das, in Washington in November at the end of a show.
He said that he came not from one India but two Indias. “I come from an India where we worship women by day and gang rape them at night,” he said.
"I come from an India where we take pride in being vegetarian, and yet run over the farmers who grow our vegetables," went another line referring to the deaths of eight people in October when a car linked to a federal minister allegedly ran over several people during a protest of controversial farm laws.
As the speech went viral on social media, many hit out at him for what they said was vilifying the country while others supported him for the hard-hitting satire.
Two people associated with the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party filed police complaints against him – Aditya Jha, a party spokesperson in Delhi, and Ashutosh Dubey, a lawyer who said he is associated with the party. They accused the comedian of making derogatory statements against India and Indian women and maligning India’s image internationally.
Delhi BJP vice-president and spokesperson on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, filed a complaint against actor-comedian Vir Das at Tilak Marg police station alleging that he used ‘derogatory’ statements against the country on an international platform maligning the image of women and India.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Online
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Artist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 28.614824674329466
Longitude: 77.2123620972055
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 17 November 2021, Vir Das, artist, was issued a complaint by two representatives of the ruling party for a show critical of the government in New Delhi, India.