Laughter dies in a country of jokers
Last year India arrested a
stand-up comic for a joke that he didn’t tell. The Time reported that
Munawar Iqbal Faruqui was all set to enter the best year of his life hitherto
with subscription to his YouTube channel crossing 500,000. On the evening of
the New Year’s day in 2021, a group of nationalists put an end to Faruqui’s
jokes. Soon he was arrested by the police for a joke that he didn’t crack. They
said he would crack jokes that might hurt Hindu sentiments!
Faruqui is
not the only comic who has been arrested in Modi’s India. From
Vir Das to Tanmay Bhatt, quite a few comedians have landed in trouble for
the crime of possessing a sense of humour. Laughter is banished from
nationalist India.
The latest is a letter written by a Press Information Bureau official to the editor of the Deccan Herald for the newspaper’s subtle sense of humour. The following image speaks for itself.
The loss of
laughter is the biggest calamity that can befall a nation, I think. There are
too many jokes and jokers in the country now right from the top places to the village
streets. The problem is that all these jokers take themselves seriously. They
think they are philosophical giants or saintly ascetics. They have appointed
themselves as the custodians of the nation’s morality and culture. So we are
not supposed to laugh at their jokes. On the contrary, we are expected to take
them seriously. Even an occasional comic relief like what the Deccan Herald
provides is being snatched from us. [Here
is a collection of a few jokes – just a sample.]
Genuine and
innocent laughter is killed. Now our jokes are distorted opinions and
standpoints foisted upon us by people in high positions. Those jokes are
murders without bloodshed. Or sheer manipulations.
PS. Written for Indispire Edition 412: Our jokes are often our
disguised stands or mysterious confessions or murders without bloodshed... Or
sheer manipulations. #OurJokes
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteThe DH rsponded very well to the letter - but it is indeed sad that political correctness (and correcting) is reaching into the one area of speech where we can all let off steam... as an aside and matter of interest, in posting a video to YTube earlier this week, I was given a notice that "if the video contained any matters of news or current affairs, an approval would be required from..." and I can't quite recall the exact wording now, but it was an office of media affairs or similar in INDIA! YAM xx
India seems to be on the highway to dictatorship.
DeleteIts just because of people like you , so called urban naxalites/librandu/communists, country suffers. Never highlights what country suffers from anti nationals like Munaver Faruqqui. Which world you are living in, boss? How can you allow people cracking jokes on your gods, can you crack jokes on Allah or Quran? You know what happens. We have been more tolerant and that is the advantage these Islamists have taken. Hindu Rashtra is the need of the hour, if we at all wish to see India a strong nation, economically, militarily, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous indignation? 😊
Delete