The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi Vice President, Aditya Jha, has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police alleging that comedian and actor Vir Das made “derogatory” remarks against India on a international platform with the intention of maligning the country’s image, as per a report in The Hindu.
“We have received a complaint in this regard and it is being inquired,” said Deepak Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, adding that an FIR has not been registered yet.
Advocate Ashutosh J Dubey, whose Twitter bio says he is the legal advisor of BJP-Maharashta Palghar District, also filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police on Tuesday alleging that Das’ monologue wilfully spells “inciting and derogatory statements against India, Indian women, and the current prime minister of India.”
On Monday, Das posted a video on YouTube and other social media platforms of his six-minute monologue, titled I Come from Two Indias, from a show at the John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, USA.
In the video, he talks about several socio-political issues in the country, such as women safety, rape, rising petrol price, farmers’ protest, communal violence, lack of information about the PM Cares fund, Bollywood and Twitter, media biases, crackdown against comedians, unemployment, pollution, and more.
“I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang rape them at night,” he says in the video that is being shared widely on social media.
“I come from an India that is going to watch this and say, ‘This isn’t comedy. Where is the goddamn joke?’ and yet I come from an India that will watch this and know there is a gigantic joke, it just isn’t funny,” he further says.
Reactions to I Come from Two Indias on social media
The video has garnered both widespread criticism as well as praise.
“A stand-up comedian who knows the real meaning of the term ‘stand up’ is not physical but moral – Vir Das spoke for millions in this 6-minute take on the Two Indias he hails from and stands up for. ‘This is a joke, but it’s just not funny.’ Brilliant,” wrote Shashi Tharoor of the Indian National Congress.
Likewise, Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress thanked Das for “speaking truth” and wrote, “Reactions also from two Indias – one having a laugh and other filing complaints with police!”
However, INC’s national spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “Generalising the evils of a few individuals and vilifying the nation as a whole in front of the world is just not done! The people who painted India in front of the west as a nation of saperas and luteras during the colonial rule have not ceased to exist.”
Producer Ashoke Pandit, meanwhile, tweeted, “I see a terrorist in this man called Vir Das. He is one of those members of a sleeper cell who has waged a war against our country on a foreign land. Should be immediately arrested under UAPA and tried under terror laws.”
On the other hand, editor and screenwriter Apurva Asrani tweeted, “I don’t agree with much that Vir Das said in his Two Indias speech. Nor do I agree with Kangana’s views on India’s Independence. But I disagree with rabid calls to ban or persecute either. If our truth is solid, we can listen, argue, move on. A democracy does not silence dissent.”
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Following the strong reactions online, Das put out a statement on Tuesday clarifying that the video is a “satire about the duality of two very separate Indias.” He added that like any nation, it has “light and dark, good and evil within it.”
Das further noted that he takes pride in his country and said, “You cannot sell tickets, earn applause, or represent a great people with negativity, only with pride.”
Requesting people to “not be fooled by edited snippets,” he added that 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 headlines, a deep beauty. That’s the point of the video and the reason for the applause.”