New Delhi: In a 6-minute monologue actor and comedian Vir Das has exposed the intolerance that rules India under PM Narendra Modi and the hypocrisy of his government and the party.
Vir Das in his monologue “Two Indias” delivered at a packed John F Kennedy Center in Washington DC took pot shots at the recent and past happenings in India, including crimes against women, PMCARES Fund, crackdown on freedom of speech, generation gap, food habits, media, and also the skyrocketing fuel prices.
“I come from an India that is Hindu, and Muslim, and Christian, and Sikh, and Parsi, and Jew , and when we all look at the sky, we only see one thing together… the price of petrol”, Vir Das said amid a round of applause from the audience.
Vir Das also took pot shots on the food habits of the people coming under threat during the present dispensation and also cited the horrific incident when son of a union minister ran over his SUV over protesting farmers.
“I come from an India… where we take pride in being vegetarians and yet run over the farmers who grow our vegetables”, he said.
Vir Das in his monologue also touched upon the frenzy, hyper-nationalism and trolling of cricket players that India witnessed in the recently concluded India vs Pakistan cricket match of T20 World Cup.
“I come from an India where we bleed blue every time we play green.. But every time we lose to green we turn orange all of a sudden”, he said to another, this time even louder, round of applause.
The monologue has however not gone down well with the ruling party members who are rushing to police stations with complaints against the comedian.
As per reports, two complaints have already been filed against Vir Das – one by a BJP member in New Delhi and the other in Mumbai by a lawyer close to the ruling party.
Citing the monologue as “venomous and inflammatory”, the lawyer, Ashutosh Dubey, wrote an email to the Mumbai Police Commissioner seeking registration of an FIR against Das. In his complaint lodged in New Delhi, BJP member, Aditya Jha, said:
“He (Das) says in the video… ‘In India, we worship women in the day and rape them at night’. These derogatory statements against women and India are inflammatory. They were made in the US and malign the image of our country internationally. I want police to conduct an investigation."
On the other hand, former union minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal extended his support for the comedian saying India under PM Modi has become "intolerant and hypocritical".
“Vir Das. None can doubt that there are two India’s. Just that we don’t want an Indian to tell the world about it. We are intolerant and hypocritical,” Kapil Sibal wrote on Twitter.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also backed Vir Das, commending him for “speaking for millions”.
“A stand-up comedian who knows the real meaning of the term “stand up” is not physical but moral. @thevirdas spoke for millions in this 6-minute take on the Two Indias he hails from & stands up for,” wrote Tharoor on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Vir Das who is still the United States, issued a statement saying:
“There has been a sizeable reaction to a video I posted on YouTube. The video is a satire about the duality of two very separate India's that do different things. Like any nation has a light and dark, good and evil within it. None of this is a secret. The video appeals for us to never forget that we are great. To never stop focusing on what makes us great. It ends in a gigantic patriotic round of applause for the country we all love, believe in and are proud of. That there is more to our country than the headlines, a deep beauty. THAT'S the point of the video and the reason for the applause.”
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