Kunal Kamra row: ‘Recover damages from him,’ says Shiv Sena leader Krishna Hegde on venue vandalism

Krishna Hegde

Krishna Hegde talks about abuse and freedom of expression, comedy and the right to offend, violence, vandalism and emotion.

Excerpts from The interview

The absolute chaos that has followed Kamra's spoof song where he mentioned Eknath Shinde, seems to be out of proportion to the ‘song' he has sung...
All this was not planned but a spontaneous reaction to Kamra's act. Kamra is anti-national and unpatriotic. This is not a song, it is abusive language.

People have a right to criticise...
We have no problem with criticism as per the Constitution. In fact, we have been working for the people all these years, even as some criticised us. Right to criticise yes, to abuse and humiliate? No. We have and have had so many comedians like Johnny Lever, Mehmood, Kader Khan, and now Kapil Sharma, there is real comedy and vulgarity and abuse.

Workers have vandalised a venue, which seems excessive retaliation...
We cannot control our workers' emotions. This is also not about creating any kind of fear. We follow Balasaheb's ideology. An FIR has been filed against Kunal Kamra. The police need to arrest him.

A venue has been broken and subsequently shuttered following this performance. Did the venue owner say anything? He has to bear the loss.
The damages should be collected from Kunal Kamra, an anti-social element and habitual offender.