“Do We Want to Be a Country That Jails Comedians? We Should Not Take Legal Action on Kunal Kamra”

"Do we want to be a country that jails comedians? We should not take legal action on Kunal Kamra": Author and Columnist, Chetan Bhagat, to Karan Thapar for The Wire.

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Chetan Bhagat, who many consider India’s most popular and most widely-read author, has said “We should not take legal action on Kunal Kamra” adding “it was a joke” even if it was unfunny or offensive. More pointedly he asked: “Do we want to be a country that jails comedians?” The answer is clearly no.



In a 35-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Chetan Bhagat, the author of multiple books, five of which have been made into films, said: “Whether a joke is stupid, boring, obnoxious or provocative, it’s still a joke. And a joke, by definition, is not meant to be taken seriously.”



Chetan Bhagat’s advice to politicians, who are the butt of jokes and humour and are lampooned by standup comics, is to ignore these jokes and “for heaven’s sake we don’t need to involve the legal system.” Going further, Chetan Bhagat adds: “Even when a joke crosses the line, try not to overreact. Showing that you’re upset only fuels the controversy. The best response is no response – or, better yet, go along with the joke.”

There are a lot of points that Chetan Bhagat makes in this interview, often about Kunal Kamra and the episode that has attracted so much controversy, which I think I will leave you to hear for yourself. Although he defends Kunal Kamra’s right to make jokes, Chetan Bhagat is also critical of his humour and the fact that he only lampoons one particular set of politicians. Again, I will leave you to hear the interview to find out what he says.



Chetan Bhagat distinguishes between America and India in terms of how the two countries respond to standup comedians who lampoon leading politicians. In India, we are thin-skinned and our politicians can’t take a joke, particularly against themselves. In contrast, in America, Trump is lampooned every single day but no one would consider police action against Trevor Noah or Stephen Colbert.



The sad truth is that in many ways we have already become a country that jails comedians. We file FIRs against them, sometimes we arrest them before they have even made their jokes, we vandalize their venues, we interrogate their audience and politicians frequently accuse them of anti-nationalism and even, on occasion, worse.



To help you follow this wide-ranging, animated, at times questioning and quarrelsome interview, where also, at times, there is agreement, I will give you the main questions asked. Here they are:



1) In a column you wrote for Sunday’s Times of India (6/4) on how politicians respond to criticism and lampooning you asked the question: “Do we want to be a country that jails comedians?” Surely we already are that sort of country? We file FIRs against comedians. We arrest them before they’ve even made a joke. We vandalize their venues. We interrogate their audience. And politicians publicly accuse them of anti-nationalism. So we are that sort of country already, aren’t we?



2) You ask a second very important question in that Times of India column: “Should we be okay with a prominent person being insulted, attacked or labelled in the name of roasting? Can a comedian escape the backlash by simply saying it was a joke?” That happens every day to Trump in America and no one would consider police against Trevor Noah or Stephen Colbert. Why is there a backlash in the world’s biggest democracy?



3) What does it tell us about Indian politicians when they can’t take a joke and they are so thin-skinned they don’t like being laughed at?



4) It wasn’t always like this. Nehru famously told Shankar don’t be lenient on me. Today in contrast you can’t imitate the way the Prime Minister speaks and you can’t joke about his claim to non-biological birth. We’re becoming less tolerant.



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