India and Kunal Kamra: When comedy becomes a crime

The violent reaction to comedian Kunal Kamra’s parody of an unnamed politician would be funny if it wasn’t a sign of a more disturbing trend in India - someone, somewhere will always be offended by something and they will not think twice before taking the law into their own hands. What makes the episode in Maharashtra even more shameful is that the ruling party’s goons indulged in the violence. Is there no rule of law in Mumbai, India’s financial capital? When the ruling party resorts to extra constitutional acts, what does it say about the state of affairs. Mob violence is being normalised and it has no place in our democracy.

Of course, it did not end there. The police immediately filed a case against Kamra for “promoting enmity”, “causing public mischief” among other charges. Leaders of the Shinde Shiv Sena were tripping all over each other to demand an apology from Kamra, justifying the violent retaliation and the completely over the top response. The venue where Kamra performed has shut down while the local municipal authorities used bulldozers outside to demolish “illegal structures” that they suddenly discovered, a move that also made a mockery of a Supreme Court ruling against “bulldozer justice”.