On November 15, Vir Das, a comedian and actor, released a six-minute video in which he spoke of “Two Indias”. In the monologue, delivered to an audience at a sold-out show at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, Mr. Das, 42, spoke of many contradictions in India on issues varying from women’s safety to tackling COVID-19 and politics. “I come from an India where we worship women during the 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.”
The video, uploaded on YouTube, went viral and triggered a storm of responses, with both supporters and critics peddling the ‘Two Indias’ memes on social networks. Mr. Das released a statement on Twitter, explaining his stand. “There has been a sizeable reaction to a video I posted on YouTube. The video is a satire about the duality of two very separate Indians that do different things. Like Any Nation has light and dark, good and evil within it. None of this is a secret,” it read. “The video appeals for us to never forget that we are great. To never stop focusing on what makes us great. It ends in a gigantic patriotic round of applause for a country we all love, believe in and are proud of. That there is more to our country than the headline, a deep beauty. That’s the point of the video and the reason for the applause.”
But the clarification did little in calming the storm. A Mumbai-based advocate, who is a legal adviser of Maharashtra’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), filed a complaint with the Mumbai police against Mr. Das for “defaming India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi”. In Delhi, a police complaint was lodged against the comedian by a BJP member for allegedly using derogatory statements against women and India.
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Apology sought
Madhya Pradesh’s Home Minister and BJP leader Narottam Mishra said
The Dehradun-born Mr. Das was the first Indian comedian to be on Netflix and has acted in many Bollywood films like
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Offensive jokes
This is not the first time Mr. Das is courting a controversy. In August 2021, he made offensive jokes about the transgender community on his #TenOnTen series on YouTube. After receiving a lot of flak for his comment on social media, Mr. Das apologised and said, “I got the joke wrong.” In July 2020, Mr. Das had uploaded a video on Twitter, saying: “I do not condone offensive jokes. Stop offensive and abusive comedy. It is not easy to take a stand against a community of peers I love, but comedy has become way too offensive.”
Nine months ago, Mr. Das landed himself in trouble for cracking jokes on former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In 2016, after the film Mastizaade was released, an FIR was filed against him and actor Sunny Leone for promoting condoms inside a temple in a vulgar manner.
Last year, while talking about self-censoring his content, Mr. Das said in an interview: “I have performed for the biggest people in the country and I am a very small fish in their pond. The guy who gets upset is never the politician or the businessman, it is the guy who loves the politician or businessman.” The show in Washington, however, seems to have upset both of them.