Are you a coward, a journalist, or a nationalist?” This question by standup comedian Kunal Kamra posed to Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami on an IndiGo flight has been watched online more than a million times this week. It has spurred a debate among India’s liberals on how “we should not become what we loathe”.
I did this for my hero…
I did it for Rohit pic.twitter.com/aMSdiTanHo— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) January 28, 2020
At the same time, Kamra’s act also appears to have kick-started a wave of heckling against those known for spreading Right-wing propaganda. On Friday, three women at Mangaluru airport ‘heckled’ Postcard News co-founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde, who has twice been arrested for spreading fake news in the past, and asked him to sing Vande Matram and “prove his nationalism”.
Three women confronted one of the most infamous Fake News peddler and RW social media propagandist Mahesh Vikram Hegde. They asked him to sing Vande Mataram and he….pic.twitter.com/FmPLEXftl8
— Ravi Nair (@t_d_h_nair) January 31, 2020
This is why Kunal Kamra is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
On Tuesday, comedian Kunal Kamra, of the Waah Modiji Waah fame, broke the Internet when he posted the video of Arnab Goswami sitting unusually speechless as he hurled question after question at him. It was a monologue.
Also read: Not Kunal Kamra, the real test for Indian liberals is Sharjeel Imam
What’s left to know about Arnab
Ironically, Goswami’s Republic TV is notorious for monologues masquerading as debates that are no more than shouting matches among politicians and political analysts. Goswami has a huge fan base across India, but he has also been accused of being the Narendra Modi government’s mouthpiece. Goswami has carved a niche for a different brand of journalism, one which is deprived of any objectivity. Emulating Fox TV-style daily hectoring of liberals and the Left, he leaves no doubt for viewers about his personal inclinations.
Reactions to Kamra’s mid-air ambush have spanned the spectrum. Some lauded him for producing priceless seconds of an uncomfortable Arnab Goswami; others accused him of heckling the anchor and compromising the security of fellow passengers on board.
“The viewers want to know, Arnab,” Kamra pestered Goswami, deriving from the anchor’s popular catchphrase and giving him a taste of his own medicine. The comedian expressed no regret for his actions and asserted that he “would never have made peace with himself” if he didn’t question the anchor.
Soon after the video went viral, IndiGo airlines put Kunal Kamra on its no-fly list for six months owing to the comedian’s “unacceptable behaviour”. Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri quickly rushed to Goswami’s defence. In a tweet, Puri ‘advised’ other airlines to impose similar restrictions on Kamra. Naturally, and unfortunately, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir followed suit, dutifully tagging Puri in their tweets announcing that they had banned Kamra from flying indefinitely.
Also read: Kunal Kamra’s behaviour unsavoury but did not warrant being banned, says IndiGo pilot
The ‘punch up’ comic
The Mumbai-based comedian has been the host of a political-comedy podcast called Shut Up Ya Kunal. The show has had visitors like Ravish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav, Javed Akhtar, Shehla Rashid, Kavita Krishnan, Asaduddin Owaisi, and Sachin Pilot among others.
The comedian is also popularly known for teaching Congress MP Shashi Tharoor the art of standup for an Amazon Prime Video show called One Mic Stand. “If anything goes wrong, blame it on Nehru,” Kamra explained to a nervous Tharoor before his standup act.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also tweeted in solidarity with Kamra, who has lampooned him relentlessly too. Some journalists saw this as proof of Gandhi’s steadfast liberalism.
You need to be brave to be a liberal. @RahulGandhi has proved a point today. It is when Mr Kamra has been overtly critical of him in a very personal way. https://t.co/UYU0p1V9tK
— Kartikeya Sharma (@kartikeya_1975) January 29, 2020
By virtue of his unabashed views on the current political dispensation, Kamra has not been a stranger to controversy. In January 2018, the comedian had to deactivate his Twitter account after users started retweeting his ‘old’ and not-so-‘woke’ jokes on Muslims, Sikhs and Mother Teresa. Kamra was self-aware of his unimaginative and problematic jokes like, “what do you gift at a Muslim wedding? Condoms.” Soon, he realised that he had to stop laughing at the expense of the ‘lesser privileged’ and maintained that he wanted to “punch up and not punch down”.
In July 2018, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda cancelled his standup after the Vice-Chancellor received a letter from some alumni calling Kamra’s content “anti-national”.
Also read: Kunal Kamra, you only harmed yourself. Next time with Arnab, do what Arvind Kejriwal does
Split liberal discourse
Kamra’s jokes ranging from ‘waah Modiji waah’ to ‘India is a parody account of democracy’ are usually at the expense of the Modi government and always bring a chuckle to the liberals. However, Kamra’s alleged ‘unruly’ behaviour towards Arnab Goswami was something that was expected of Goswami, and not Kamra, liberals now say.
Many say that comedians have emerged as key players in expressing dissent and are doing the job that many journalists aren’t – in both Trump’s America and Modi’s India. When it comes to Twitter politics, satire has slowly become a safeguard against hyper-nationalists. And many called his Indigo act a masterful performance that shrunk Goswami’s larger-than-life persona.
But with an IndiGo pilot now saying that Kamra was not ‘unruly’ and didn’t warrant a ban, the nation wants to know who will have the last laugh.