The standup Comedian Vir Das tried to respond to the overwhelming backlash his YouTube video generated in India where he is seen saying in a long monologue ” I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gangrape them at night, in a post.
He said ” The video is a satire about the duality of two very separate Indias that do different things. Like any nation has light and dark, good and evil within it. None of this is a secret” before adding that ” “I ask of you, the same thing I asked that audience…to focus on the light, remember our greatness, and spread the love.”
The ire against Vir Das broke out in the wake of his performance named ” I come from Two Indias” at the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC a clip of which was uploaded on YouTube. Many Indians found his commentary disparaging to India. His satire included “leaders who hug each other without masks” and ” I come from an India that has the largest working population under 30 on the planet but still listens to 75 year old leaders with 150 year-old ideas.”
Several Indians took his satire for an insult to India and even police complaints have started been filing against him for “derogatory statements against India”, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi was found criticising Vir Das on his tweeter handle, saying generalising the evils of a few individuals in front of world is just not done. Dr Singhvi was scathing when he said, ” The people who painted India in front of the west as a nation of saperas and luteras during the colonial rule have not ceased to exist.”
Another Congress Leader and the man who could have been Secretary General of The United Nations, Shashi Tharoor presented the counter view endorsing the Vir Das take by saying ” (The real meaning) of the” stand up” is not physical but moral and “This is a joke, but it’s just not funny.”
