New Delhi, March 24 Congress leader Pramod Tiwari defended stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra after his satirical video allegedly aimed at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, sparked outrage within the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction.
Reacting to the backlash, Tiwari accused the government of attacking freedom of speech and questioned why Eknath Shinde was reacting so strongly when no names were taken.
"This is a case of ‘the guilty mind speaks,' as the saying goes, ‘the one who is guilty is the one making noise.’ No names were taken. And even if a name had been mentioned, if someone found it offensive, the doors of the court are always open," Tiwari told IANS.
Slamming Shinde’s faction for its aggressive response, he added, "You are the Deputy Chief Minister and a former Chief Minister. Will you file a case, or will you resort to hooliganism? Will you storm studios and vandalise them? The Constitution grants freedom of expression, yet you are murdering it with muscle power. This is a dictatorship, this is fascism."
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi also hit out at the Shinde faction, accusing them of stifling political satire and comedy.
"Before 2014, Kunal Kamra and other stand-up comedians used to roast and create humour regularly. How shameful is it that you are destroying the space for humour in this country just because you don't like political comedy and satire? Shameful," she said.
The video, uploaded by Kamra on his YouTube channel, has drawn sharp criticism from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, with leaders warning of consequences.
Shiv Sena leader Nilesh Rane issued an open threat, saying, "If you want to do comedy, do it within your limits. No one is stopping you. But if you target our faith and our leaders, if you cross the line, we will not tolerate it. Wherever he is seen, we will beat him up and not spare him."
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, Arvind Sawant, downplayed the controversy, stating, "I don’t know him, never met him, and whatever he says, let him say it. It’s all lies. These things keep happening. Look at Sampat Saral, people listen to him, they laugh, and they enjoy satire. But now, law and order in our state is crumbling, and the ones in power are responsible for it."
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena workers stormed and vandalised the venue of Kamra’s show at Mumbai’s Habitat studio. The police later asked the Shiv Sena workers to appear for questioning.
“Meri nazar se tum dekho toh, gaddar nazar wo aaye. Haaye," Kunal Kamra said during his show.
He allegedly mocked Eknath Shinde using a modified version of a Hindi song from "Dil To Pagal Hai", eliciting laughter from the audience.
The comedian shared the video clip on the social networking platform X. Kunal Kamra was apparently alluding to Eknath Shinde's 2022 rebellion, which led to the split of Shiv Sena into the Shinde faction and the Uddhav Thackeray faction.
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