‘It’s getting difficult to do stand-up comedy in India’

The MS University of Baroda’s decision to cancel comedian Kunal Kamra’s show, which was scheduled to be held in the city next month, hasn’t gone down well with Manan Desai. The university took this decision after a motley group of 11 former students wrote to the VC, raising concerns about Kunal’s ‘anti-national’ content and saying that the comedian should not be allowed inside the campus.Although MSU cancelled the booking of the show, Kunal’s show is happening at one of the city’s leading hotels on the same day, same time. Manan, who has expressed his disappointment about MSU’s decision in no uncertain terms on social media, spoke to us on the issue. Excerpts:

We live in a democratic country and sense of humour is a very subjective thing. While MSU has every right to cancel a show, the reason that has been given is bizarre and worrying. See, even I don’t agree with some of Kunal’s jokes, or the way he presents them. But stopping a comedian from performing is completely unacceptable. In a lot of countries, comedians crack jokes about politicians and they don’t face any issues. A comedian’s personal and professional life are completely different but in India, unfortunately, the two seem to go hand-in-hand and people are judging you all the time.
‘Stopping a comedian from performing is unacceptable’
It is important to understand that cracking anti-national jokes and anti-government jokes isn't quite the same thing. On social media, a lot of people have been accusing me of cracking jokes only about the current government, which isn’t true at all. In the past, comedians have cracked enough jokes about our former PM Manmohan Singh, or even about Rahul Gandhi.
May be, the way Kunal delivers his jokes isn’t liked by everyone but then, every comedian has his/her own set of followers and when they have paid to watch them in action, who is anybody to stop them? In fact, I was listening to the interview of a syndicate member from the MSU on radio and when the RJ reminded him that the university has hosted controversial and bold plays/shows in the past too, his response was, ‘!’ Is this what our is about? Be it our city or MSU, we are known for our diversity and acceptance of different views. Now, after this incident, all future comedy shows here will be monitored closely and this can’t be good news for event organizers.
Do you think we are over sensitive about jokes now?
, as comedians, we just crack jokes. Is our country, and our fabulous Constitution, so weak that the nation’s foundation will become weak by what a comedian is saying to his/her audience? I keep hearing complaints about Kunal’s statement that went viral (Siachen ), and a lot of people complain that he is making fun of our army. The point is, he isn’t making fun of the army, but commenting on people who use the forces as a defence mechanism to divert focus from other issues. We also praise anything good that our current government does, ! When I am not going and telling other people about how they should do their job, why should they be advising me about what my content should be? Who sets these rules, government, religion, subjects joke crack ? There are different genres of comedy, and no comedian is forcing anyone to go and watch his/her shows. Our entire purpose is to make people laugh and the moment the audience becomes so over sensitive, they are limiting the scope for a comedian. Tomorrow, if I crack jokes at a show in Gujarat, people might find it really funny but won’t that be politically incorrect and racist? We are trying to do different things and people always have the option to choose what they want to watch.
Every joke has a purpose and as comedians, we can only question certain things. Do people really think we can influence audiences so much? It’s not about supporting Kunal, but about supporting comedy and freedom of expression. Nobody should tell me what I should or should not say on stage. Such incidents are unsettling and shows that the overall perception about comedy is changing in India. To
morrow, this could happen to me as well! Under the circumstances, it’s getting difficult to do stand-up comedy here.

Kunal Kamra was scheduled to perform at the Professor CC Mehta auditorium, MSU, on August 11.
11 former MSU students, who had claimed that Kunal was an “anti-national”, wrote to VC Parimal Vyas, saying that they suspected “some ideological conspiracy to pollute the minds of Barodian youth ahead of 2019.”
The VC, who did not want the university to be dragged into any political issue, asked professor Rakesh Modi, co-ordinator of the auditorium, to examine the matter.
MSU cancelled the show, with the authorities saying that there could have been security issues.

“Such incidents are really shocking and at the end of the day, it is the event organizers who have to face huge losses when a show gets cancelled. In fact, of late, even the police have been giving us permission to hold comedy shows at the very last moment. We are always on the edge, which is highly unfortunate. People pay money to watch these shows, and those who don’t like a certain kind of humour have the choice to stay away. Why deprive the others from watching what they want? Will certain individuals now decide the content for these shows? It’s ridiculous!”