Video Editor: Vivek Gupta
“At this point, if you say anything against the government, you are automatically considered to be either from the Congress or anti-national,” standup comedian Anirban Dasgupta told The Quint, after Vadodara’s MS University cancelled a show by fellow comedian Kunal Kamra, reportedly for his “anti-national content”.
The university’s decision was prompted by a group of 11 former students who claimed that Kamra was “anti-national” and “supported the Tukde-Tukde gang”.
In his standup special ‘Take It Easy’ on Amazon Prime Video, Dasgupta spends an ample amount of time talking about the pressures faced by standup comedians and offence-happy interest groups.
You cannot have selective standup. Selective standup is no standup. Usse accha kuch poetry kar ke nikal jaate. Plus, even if we decide that there are some topics you can’t touch in standup, India is so diverse – who makes the list?Anirban Dasgupta, in his standup special ‘Take It Easy’
So what are the things that come under “anti-national comedy”?
Dasgupta laughs, “There is no list. There’s just one thing. You cannot be critical of anything related to the government. That’s it. You can win the Nobel Prize but just tweet something against the government and you’re an anti-national! You can win five Olympic golds, but one tweet can make you anti-national.”
In his Facebook post in which he shared the news of the cancellation of Kamra’s show, Dasgupta blamed “this regime” and its cheerleaders. Does he feel that it’s more difficult to criticise the Modi government than others?
“There is no doubt that it is the worst currently. But I also feel that no political party inherently supports freedom of speech, especially a political party in power. The only difference is that the current government has made it mainstream. It's boast-worthy [for them]. Other people in the past, who are in the Opposition now, used to do it slyly. The current regime is like, ‘There's nothing to be sly about this, we will make it a mainstream issue to deflect attention’.
Also, with the increase [in usage] of social media, which is really big now, it has become much easier to spread and manufacture hate. Most of the things we see online are just manufactured offence. Nobody is really offended. They are just instructions that are being followed.”
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