Comedian Kunal Kamra is no stranger to controversy. In his latest iteration of political humour, Kamra used a video of a seven-year-old boy singing “Hey Janma Bhoomi Bharat” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin during the latter’s recent international trip, replaced the boy’s face, and overlaid the patriotic song with “Mehengayi Dayain Khaye Jaat Hai” from the film “Peepli Live” which speaks of inflation pain. The boy’s father lashed out at Kamra on Twitter, called him “Kunal Kachra” and demanded that he keep the boy “out of your filthy politics”. Kamra retorted that “the joke is not on your son…there are songs he (Modi) should listen to from people of his country also”. In the little boy singing that song for the PM, his political proselytisation has begun but that’s a different track.
Kamra, like most comedians, satirists, and cartoonists, relishes stoking a debate. They joke and make memes to get a laugh out of people and make a strong political point. That’s their work in a democracy. Good and memorable humour pulls punches at the powerful, after all. The sharpest and acerbic criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi or Dr Manmohan Singh as prime ministers came from humourists. With Modi, it’s different. His image managers and a large fan club lack the funny bone needed to appreciate comedy, wit, and jest that his critics often use. Modiji is above jokes, they want us to accept. Why should the Prime Minister of a democracy be above anything – law, criticism, or humour?
Kamra focused on a significant issue – runaway inflation and the absurdly rising cost of living. It has driven Indians, except the uber-wealthy, to tears. Inflation jokes have become a coping mechanism, gags covering up people’s pain. Kamra was drawing the PM’s – and a section of the media – attention to the issue; he has more than two million followers on Twitter alone. His use of the video of the seven-year-old is open to debate but he had masked the child’s face. Instead of inflation, it was Kamra who made headlines, a furious National Commission for Protection of Child Rights knocked on his door (it’s mostly silent about violence against children in India), and there’s the threat of a legal case. This joke is on us, the people of India.
