Mumbai: The political storm over comedian Kunal Kamra’s alleged mocking of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde intensified on Monday with tremors being felt in Parliament premises and across Maharashtra.
The divide within the political fraternity widened as the ruling MahaYuti partners in Maharashtra lashed out at the comedian and the rival Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) batted for freedom of expression.
The controversy took a violent twist with vandalism of The Habitat Studio, the venue of Kamra’s recent show in a Mumbai hotel, by Shiv Sena workers on Sunday night, leading to the arrest 12 of people, including Shiv Sena leader Rahool Kanal.
To add more drama, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday carried out demolition at The Habitat Studio, located at the Unicontinental Hotel in Khar, citing violations of civic rules.
The Mumbai Police have lodged an FIR against Kamra over his jibe at Deputy CM Shinde.
“After the registration of FIR, the police have launched a hunt for comedian Kunal Kamra,” said the Minister of State for Home (urban) and Shiv Sena leader, Yogesh Kadam.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Kamra should apologise for referring to Deputy CM Shinde as a “traitor” in his show.
“Everyone has a right to perform stand-up comedy, but freedom should not be unrestrained behaviour. Kamra should immediately apologise for his remark. Action will be taken against him as per law,” the CM said.
Kamra was in Tamil Nadu when Maharashtra Police contacted him, but he refused to issue an apology.
Shiv Sena-UBT leader and MLA Aaditya Thackeray voiced support for the comedian and condemned the attack on the studio, calling it an act of cowardice.
In a post on X, Thackeray wrote, “Mindhe’s (read Shinde) coward gang breaks the comedy show stage where comedian @kunalkamra88 put out a song on Eknath mindhe, which was 100 per cent true. Only an insecure coward would react to a song by someone.”
His party colleague and MP Sanjay Raut said he wanted to know whether censorship and Emergency had been imposed in Maharashtra. He also appealed to Chief Minister Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, to leave charge of the department.
Amid the political slugfest, Samajwadi Party MP and actress Jaya Bachchan criticised the vandalism and booking of the comedian, saying, “If such steps are being taken on saying something then where is freedom of speech?”
Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora rebuked Kamra for a distasteful display of humour. He claimed that the political elites have “hired classist elitists as paid agents” like him to divert public attention from crucial issues, particularly the Disha Salian case.
During his show, Kamra said, “Meri nazar se tum dekho toh, gaddar nazar wo aaye. Haaye,” an apparent taunt at Deputy CM Shinde, using a modified version of Hindi song from “Dil To Pagal Hai”.
He was apparently alluding to Shinde’s 2022 rebellion, which led to the split of Shiv Sena into two — Shinde faction and Uddhav Thackeray faction.
The controversy snowballed after the comedian shared the video clip on the social networking platform X.
The Habitat Studio, where Karma made the comment targeted at Deputy CM Shinde, is the same venue where the controversial show ‘India’s Got Latent’ was organised. The comments of podcaster Samay Raina during that show sparked a public outrage.
The studio announced permanent closure on Monday, a fallout of vandalism on the premises on Sunday.
(IANS)
