Recently, popular podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia found himself in a controversy that quickly escalated from social media rants to a full-blown national crisis—at least, if TV news anchors are to be believed. For a joke deemed “beyond the limits” of Indian conscience, the YouTuber now faces an FIR, a parliamentary panel’s ire, and the collective wrath of outraged viewers.
Allahbadia promptly posted an apology on X, but the avalanche of condemnation has not slowed. Politicians, the National Commission for Women (NCW), and police have all rushed in to share their two cents on the supposedly civilisation-threatening comments.
In a country grappling with unemployment, rising prices, and threats to women’s safety, it’s comforting to see the moral policing machinery leap into action over a podcaster’s offhand remark. TV news channels went into a frenzy, airing extended segments to dissect how “tasteless” and “offensive” the words were. It’s as if the entire nation could sink or swim based on Allahbadia’s comic timing.
This is the same podcaster who, just last summer, was rather chummy with Union ministers such as S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar on The Ranveer Show. You’d think those high-profile chats or even his episodes on black magic might’ve caused a stir, but irony had other plans. He’s in hot water for a joke that, at best, qualifies as cringe.
Two things could explain the controversy. As a nation, we’re either more enthusiastic about sensational takedowns than meaningful discourse or we see a single offhand joke as an attack on our ‘sacred’ values. Underpinning this reaction is a long-standing belief in censorship as a means of preserving moral order—especially for the younger generation.
Many parents think that if their children never encounter certain ideas, they’ll be safeguarded from ever following those questionable paths. We see similar anxieties around LGBTQ issues, where some parents worry that simply discussing the topic might influence their children’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Merely being exposed to something, in this view, poses a threat potent enough to justify silencing voices rather than engaging with them.
Let’s be honest, the backlash we’re seeing springs from Indians’ strict family hierarchy, where respect for elders is non-negotiable. A crass joke that dares to articulate a taboo topic like incest seems, to many, a direct assault on this system.
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Perils of censorship
I’m no free speech absolutist. I don’t support hate speech or speech that can ignite chaos in a volatile moment. And yes, I believe children need guidance—there’s a time and place to introduce certain topics, and that’s perhaps best handled by parents. But the solution can’t be to censor everything that makes us uncomfortable, simply because that’s neither feasible nor particularly effective. If a parent doesn’t want their child consuming a particular type of content, it’s their responsibility to supervise them—not to demand a ban on that content.
Pushing for blanket bans and moral crackdowns only grants the state more latitude to censor—and that rarely ends well. This isn’t a partisan issue, either. Moral grandstanding thrives across the ideological and religious spectrum.
It’s also time for social media activists to abandon the fantasy that they’ve “cracked” India, or that people flock to them out of unshakable respect for free speech. The hard truth is, so long as you don’t cross the public’s invisible line, you’re tolerated. Cross it, and the very people cheering you on can turn into a mob overnight.
Sadly, people make choices based on what seems right to them in a moment—not on unwavering principles or values. And yes, if Indians collectively decide an idea or viewpoint is beyond the pale, they can choose to silence it, but that doesn’t mean they’ve put an end to it. There are always better ways to deal with an uncomfortable joke or idea than resorting to censorship.
Amana Begam Ansari is a columnist. She runs a weekly YouTube show called ‘India This Week by Amana and Khalid’. She tweets @Amana_Ansari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
The crackdown on Ranveer and Samay is an overreaction. That is true. But, defending their jokes at the name of “moral policing” is wrong from the author. It might be true that some communities probably enjoy watching sex between siblings and parents or engage in them in name of Halala, but rest all communities look at incest as a crime, as they should. So yeah, outrage was justified, the extreme reaction from civic societies is not.