At the end of comic Kunal Kamra’s latest video is a line that captures the essence of political comedy in today’s India—he quotes Osho saying, “Life begins when fear ends.”
An outsider to the shenanigans of our New India might think of it as somewhat of a strange line to use to conclude a video of a comic set.
It is only comedy, after all.
Yet, the events that unfolded in the 24 hours after his video was published on YouTube, underlined why that line was apt and necessary.
Of the flurry of events that have occurred on Monday, 24 March, here is a summary: Legislators in Maharashtra—casting aside a crippling public debt and a farm crisis that sees seven farmers kill themselves on average each day—demanded that Kamra be arrested for treason, be hung upside down in public, and his face be blackened. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has seldom shown such alacrity in reacting to hate speeches and communal violence, delivered a seven-minute-long statement in the state Assembly, saying that Kamra will face “the strictest” of legal actions.
Those in the know in Mumbai said Kamra faces imminent arrest.
Comedy in India, for a while, has been the domain of the brave or the foolhardy, depending on your outlook. Being the subject of police FIRs isn’t new for India’s comics, but Monday’s events reveal that threshold has now been crossed.