Live-streaming platform Hotstar has not given a reason for removing the Hardik Pandya episode, but all promotional pictures have been taken down
New Delhi: The controversial episode of Koffee with Karan featuring cricketers Hardik Pandya and K.L. Rahul has been taken off Hotstar, the live-streaming platform that airs the show.
On an episode that aired Sunday night, Pandya and Rahul made remarks about women which were seen as “sexist and misogynistic”.
The comments triggered social media outrage, and prompted Pandya to release a statement apologising for his behaviour, saying he got “carried away by the nature of the show”.
Hotstar has not issued a statement giving the reason for taking the episode off the air, but it has removed promotional pictures related to it from platforms such as Instagram.
Also read: ‘If Hardik Pandya was a woman, she would be hailed as a sexual revolutionary’
The controversy
On the show, the two players spoke about the women they had been with, with Pandya revealing details about how he picks up women at bars.
“I like to watch and observe how they (women) move. I’m little from the black side so I need to see how they move,” Pandya said in response to host Karan Johar’s question about why he doesn’t ask women their names at bars.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Committee of Administrators (CoA), Vinod Rai, has sent the two players a showcause notice and recommended a two-match ban. The other CoA member, Diana Edulji, meanwhile, has recommended that the two players be put under suspension till a further course of action is decided.
Censorship concerns
The sudden removal of the episode raises concerns over censorship and who decides what is appropriate for public viewing.
In October this year, Netflix and Hotstar reportedly arrived at a “compromise” with the Information and Broadcast Ministry, where they agreed to adopt the “best practices internationally” while coming up with a set of guidelines to self-regulate the content they broadcast.
That is exactly my point. While both the players have been punished and shamed, no one has raised this pertinent question — Why was it aired in the first place ? Why did they remove it ? As an after thought ? So, if the public cheers the inappropriate, it is alright and if there is an outcry , you shift sides? How convenient !!
Question two — Why was Mr. Karan Johar nudging them on the borders of the inappropriate ? Surely, he should know what is sexist and what is not. Why no one is asking him any questions?