Since last couple of days, there has been a huge outrage on Vir Das’s Monologue at the Kennedy Center. While some of the people have called his Monologue a reality and a reflection of today’s India, most of the people are offended.

There have been contradictory opinions on his piece across the internet and he has also issued a clarification with respect to the same on twitter. Yes, there are some facts in his monologue, but the platform he choose was wrong. One of the reasons, why people in general are offended is because he openly tweets and does comedy by talking crap about women, but in his monologue claims that In India, we worship women during the Day and Gangrape them at night.

The problem is most of the comedians, who are so called influencers or entertainers, have made their careers by making fun of Women, Racisms, Caste system, Body shaming. For Example, Most of Kapil Sharma’s jokes are based on degrading women and insulting them in public. Regionalism and making fun of different cultures in India is what some people openly admitted as Comedy. Almost 99% of the initial content of Indian Stand Up artist or any Comedian includes the above 4 aspects. It is somewhere like an unwritten rule that you need to have x amount of jokes on degrading a woman, you need to have x amount of jokes on stereotyping a particular region etc. etc.

So what, I find absurd is that its ok to abuse women and body shame people in public because it is hilarious and they are super heroes for doing the same. The trolls are almost invisible during this time, when they genuinely need to stand up for someone, who is being abused by these so called stand up comedians. The same Comedians will abuse everyone in the name of comedy and will tweet about mental health and depression when some famous celebrity commits suicide.

The so called trolls and social media warriors that he referred to as Courageous are the same 19 year old’s who first ask their professors to teach them only what will come in the exam and still blindly follow the mugging system.

Sadly, we see so many people creating so much of hue and cry in name of Freedom of Speech but become totally mute when they see a crime happening in front of them. People cry in the name of violation of Freedom of Speech yet lack complete bystanders empathy.

Vir Das, you are a well known entertainer and a Comedian, people look upto you so it is all the more important that you think before you talk. Everything that you told was a reality, but the platform and the interpretation of the same was not. For ages, the west has been romanticizing the poverty in India and your statements in your monologues only encourages them. When an Artist travels across the world, knowingly or unknowingly he represents the country. So all the more he needs to be careful about the statements that he makes. There are a lot of individuals, who follow you on social media and absorb every word that you say as the ultimate truth.

You are an artist and making people laugh is your passion, but please do not do it at the cost of someone else. It’s ok to criticise your country but do not do it on a public platform and tarnish its image in front of new people (like foreigners), who barely know the Country. Do not criticize or blindly follow your any principles just for the sake of views. You have a huge power to influence people, let that be a positive influence and not a negative influence.

Los Angeles has Casinos, Film Studios and also has slum areas and politics. When we talk about Los Angeles, the only image that comes in my mind are the film studios.

The only problem is we are not taught to be proud of our Country and we take a huge privileges’ in criticizing our Country. Democracy gives you the right to criticize but it does not mean that you keep on tarnishing the image of your country, or the next time we won’t require the British to Divide us, the stupidity of some people will be sufficient to do so.

Image Source: Indian Express, Twitter.

Aishwarya Says:

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