Despite harassment campaign across India, stand-up comic says he will not censor himself, and will step up his international shows
The outspoken comedian says he has two censors: his conscience and the Constitution. Pic/Facebook
About a week after his show in Gurugram was cancelled after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad claimed he made fun of Hindu gods and goddesses, comedian Kunal Kamra told mid-day he will neither relinquish the stage nor censor himself. Ruling out changing his content, he said, “Once I get on stage, I perform for my audience exactly what I was going to perform. That’s my 100 per cent commitment. There are two censors, one is my own conscience and the other is the Constitution of India. My material doesn’t change for any other reason.”
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In fact, he plans a slew of overseas shows. The comedian said, “I am going to travel abroad to do as many shows as I can. My current special has my favourite political premises from the last six years reworked for today’s times. Building this show was so much fun. I think I am enjoying performing these 75 minutes the most.”
Following the cancellation at Gurugram, Kamra pre-emptively called off his shows in the northern Indian cities of Jaipur and Dehradun. Asked why, he said, “I had two shows in Jaipur and Dehradun at bars with a capacity of 200 seats. I didn’t want to risk the safety of my audience. Hence, I didn’t do the show. It just takes two idiots to create a ruckus and this is my axe to grind. I can’t put anyone else at risk.”
Also read: Kunal Kamra shows in Gurugram cancelled after VHP, Bajrang Dal threat
The comic acknowledged the cancellation and trolling took an emotional toll on him
Kamra asked how he could be considered ‘anti-Hindu’ when “90 per cent” of his audiences, he said, were themselves Hindu. Acknowledging the cancellation and subsequent social media trolling took an emotional toll on him, the comedian said his current tour will continue as of now, with upcoming shows in Mumbai, Pune and Singapore.
Asked whether cancellations and animosity have changed his outlook on his future, Kamra said, “I have been doing stand-up comedy for 10 years. This is the future for me.” Following the Gurugram cancellation, Kamra wrote an open letter to the VHP, asking it to give proof of him having made fun of Hindu deities. Asked whether he had received any proof, Kamra said “[T]hey haven’t replied to my letter; they never will.”
His open letter also referred to Nathuram Godse–who was indoctrinated into Hindutva thought and went on to murder Mahatma Gandhi–and challenged the right-wing outfit to denounce Godse. The comedian said, “I have been called many names by people who don’t like or approve of the comedy I do, as per their perception of who is a good citizen. It’s an opinion mostly, like ‘anti-national’, ‘urban Naxal, ‘sickular’, ‘alleged comedian’ etc. But the VHP, who can’t take a position on independent India’s first terrorist Nathuram Godse, calling me anti-Hindu, had to be responded to, I felt.”
Asked whether stand-up comedy, an outspoken and often spontaneous art-form, would suffer in the absence of freedom of speech and expression in India, and why the right wing was going after comedians such as Agrima Joshua, Munawar Faruqui, Vir Das and now him, he said, “I can’t gauge what it will be 10 years right now but things look grim to me.” One possible reason behind the pressure on stand-up comedians, he said, could be that stand-up comedy is not under the control of the Hindu right. “Comedy doesn’t have opportunistic old idiots to run right-wing comedy scenes, which can pull as much audience as the bigger names in India,” he said.
When this interviewer told Kamra that a prominent comedy club owner in Mumbai had told him recently he was now wary of holding open mics—events where up-and-coming comics test new jokes and hone their skills—as he was worried about what would happen if raw young comedians said something that would offend the Hindu right, Kamra said, “Young comedians have our lives to see and make a clear choice of what their politics are, what they would like to do with stand-up.” He added, “But open mics and having a breakout comedy act is more difficult currently compared to when we uploaded our videos.”
Kamra said he didn’t expect his words to be heeded by the people who got his show cancelled. He said, “All I can tell them is, keep busy checking Aadhaar cards on dandiya nights. That’s where they belong.” He suggested, “If they want to evolve, they’ll have to accept and understand bodhisattva Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, then they will have a future. Maybe.”
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