On 23rd March, 2025, Kunal Kamra uploaded a 45-minute video on his YouTube channel. The title of the video was Naya Bharat and it was a recording of his comedy show which he had performed in the Habitat studio in Mumbai. The video was recorded in January but was published two months later.
The video was shot in the same studio where Samay Raina had shot India’s Got Latent. In this video, Kunal Kamra did what you’d expect from a comedian. He cracked some jokes.
You’ll like some of the jokes and you won’t like the rest. During his set, he sang a parody song. Kunal Kamra didn’t mention anyone’s name but it’s clear who he was talking about.
He was talking about Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde. After the video was uploaded, there was a ruckus among Shiv Sena’s staff. On the same night, Shiv Sena’s social media head Rahul Kanal and youth Sena leaders like Akshay Panvelkar and Kunal Sarmalkal announced to their supporters that the hotel where he had performed should be banned.
Around 10.30 pm, Shiv Sena’s party workers reached the Habitat studio. They entered the basement auditorium where the comedian Rajat Sood was performing. They told the audience to leave.
They said, we don’t have any enmity with you. But they abused the staff of Habitat. They asked Kunal Kamra to come here.
When he realized that the video was shot in January, what did he do? Rahul Kanal threatened Kunal Kamra. After this, Habitat Studio released a formal statement on Instagram. They said that the artists are responsible for their views.
But instead, we have to take responsibility for this. Meanwhile, the BMC officials who didn’t see any problem in the Mumbai infrastructure immediately reached the Unicontinental Hotel where Habitat Studio is located. They saw that there’s an illegal shed on the entryway.
So they demolished it. To create a ruckus, an FIR was filed against 33 people. 12 people, including Rahul Kanal, were arrested.
But they were bailed out within 5 hours. Then, MLA Murji Patel of Shiv Sena filed an FIR against Kunal Kamra. The case was about how Kunal Kamra’s statements disturbed the public order and defamed the Deputy Chief Minister.
After filing the FIR, the MLA gave Kunal Kamra a 2-day deadline to reach there. Otherwise, you don’t know what would happen to you. We want to send a message to him through you that he should apologize to our leader in the next 2 days.
If he doesn’t apologize, then Mumbai’s Shiv Sena won’t let him roam free. In response to this, Kunal Kamra uploaded this photo. But he gave an official statement that attacking the venue for the words of a comedian is as stupid as destroying the lorry that was carrying tomatoes because you didn’t like the butter chicken of a restaurant.
I won’t apologize. Then, Kunal Kamra was threatened. The next day, Mumbai police sent Kunal Kamra summons.
And he demanded a 7-day deadline. One by one, every politician’s comments were released. Stand up for Kunal Kamra.
The Fallout from Kunal Kamra’s ‘Naya Bharat’ Comedy Show and Its Political Implications
Ekna Shinde himself said that Kunal Kamra was doing it for money. But he doesn’t support violence. It’s the feelings of the workers.
Action meets reaction. But he doesn’t support it. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also said that comedy is a right.
But a line shouldn’t be crossed. On the other hand, many people are in support of Kunal Kamra. Like Uddhav Thackeray.
I don’t think Kunal Kamra has said anything wrong. Attacking traitors is not attacking anyone. A traitor is a traitor.
His son Aditya Thackeray also said that Kunal Kamra didn’t even mention Ekna Shinde. So why are his supporters creating a ruckus? The question is when did the workers of Ekna Shinde decide that traitors and thieves are Ekna Shinde? Two days after the release, Kunal Kamra’s video was deleted from YouTube for a copyright claim of an A-series. Because he made a parody of Bholi Si Surat.
Kunal Kamra said that it’s a pressure tactic. The video was deleted but it’s back on YouTube because it’s not against copyright laws. Mumbai police rejected Kunal Kamra’s request and they’ll send him a second summons.
He was the social media head of Shiv Sena. He was a leader among those workers. Why did this man create a political drama with a joke? A few days ago, many of us might not even know him. So why do we want to focus on him? To make you understand one thing. Political incentives. And these political incentives decide how we live our lives.
Will there be a road in front of your house or not? What price will you pay for vegetables? And what can you crack a joke on or not? Rahul is not an ordinary worker. He has more than 1 crore followers on Instagram. Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Virat Kohli, and Anant Ambani all have his photos.
Rahul gave several interviews where he didn’t apologize but defended himself. This habitat is called Khaar police station which comes under Mumbai police station where 6 FIRs have been lodged on different occasions. So I called the owner and told him that this has happened again.
Are you aware of it? He said that the studio owner is also responsible for the type of content that is shot in his studio. He said that this was a way to oppose him because Kunal Khanna used many abusive words against his leader, Eknath Shinde. Agitation is an emotion.
It comes out of an emotion. Workers get emotional. They have emotional feelings.
That’s why they react to action. When you do something in a thought process which is planned and something which is not planned. If someone talks about you tomorrow, my stand will be the same.
Do you use any personal criticism below the belt and political lingo? But look at the hypocrisy. Once, Rahul made fun of PM Modi in the style of Kunal Kamra. Here you can see that Rahul says Wow, Mr. Modi! Wow! Sorry, Kunal Kamra.
Had to use your style. You’ll find a lot of hypocrisy like this in Rahul’s past. Today, he’s after Kunal Kamra.
But in 2020, he was tweeting how excited he was for his interview. But things started to change in 2022 when the Income Tax Department raided Rahul’s house due to the Hawara racket. The Enforcement Directorate carried out 21 raids.
Shiv Sena’s Response to Kunal Kamra’s Parody and the Battle Over Freedom of Speech
They’re carrying out massive raids in Maharashtra. Very close to Aditya Thackeray, Rahul Kunal’s house was raided. At the time, he was a special person But in June 2023, he joined Etna Shinde Ki Shiv Sena out of self-respect.
He said that Mr. Aditya doesn’t give him time. He said, I’ve been trying to talk to him for 4 months, but he hasn’t given me any time. And now, his behavior changed.
And you won’t get this attention when you repair roads, fill potholes, and clean up. It takes time and money to do such things. But it’s not necessary to get media attention.
He became Aditya Thackeray’s biggest critic. In August 2024, he accused Aditya of handing over illegal contracts So why did Rahul create a ruckus in the Habitat studio? Because Rahul knows about political incentives. He knows that it’s difficult for a low-level leader to get the attention of a high-level leader in a political party.
You need media attention to create a ruckus when your political leader is being personally attacked. And once you’re in the spotlight, your senior leader has only two options. Either he protects you, or he becomes a scapegoat.
But what did Etna Shinde do? He didn’t remove Rahul from the party. He gave him support. He got a political promotion.
Imagine, Etna Shinde has thousands of leaders and thousands of employees. How will they get Shinde’s attention? It’s a shortcut to create a ruckus. It’s called aggressive reinforcement Rahul did the same when he wanted to do more for the country.
And he’s doing the same Rahul didn’t do this because he believes in freedom of expression or because he doesn’t like Kunal Kamra or because he doesn’t like comedy. He did this for his political incentives. And this is a problem for all political parties.
All political parties are centralized where only a few leaders decide everything. Democracy is just a name. That’s why the low-level leaders don’t have much to contribute to the party.
So if they want a promotion, they have to do it. And Rahul is doing the same. Our political leaders do the same hypocrisy every day.
Like Maharashtra’s second deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that Maharashtra’s chief minister will make decisions according to the law. But did you know that one word that Kunal Kamra used to create a ruckus was used by Ajit Pawar a few years ago. But was there any police action against Ajit Pawar? No.
Because in our country, politicians don’t have any values. They only have one value – power. You’ll find this selective outrage in every political party.
In 2020, within 24 hours, the BMC demolished Kangana Ranaut’s Pali Hill house due to illegal constructions. But this demolition happened two days later, coincidentally, when Kangana Ranaut’s statement went viral. She said that Mumbai has become Pakistan.
Then she criticized the Mumbai police for Sushant Singh Rajput’s case. And what happened to them? Their house was demolished in two days. Interestingly, Bombay High Court ordered that no demolition should take place.
At that time, Uddhav Thackeray was in power in Maharashtra. And he took this decision. But what did opposition leader Divendra Fadnavis say? But five years later, the roles were reversed.
Uddhav Thackeray was defending Kunal Kamra. And Divendra Fadnavis was justifying. And don’t assume that this happens only in Maharashtra.
This is YouTuber Savuku Shankar. He made a video about corruption in the procurement of sewage trucks in Tamil Nadu. What happened to him? More than 24 people entered his house and threatened him that this time, they stopped.
But next time, they’ll burn him alive in their own house. In 2020, Shiv Sena’s staff didn’t spare a retired Indian Navy officer because he shared a meme about Uddhav Thackeray. Think of it as an incentive for politicians.
The Role of Political Incentives in Shaping Public Reactions to Comedy
Every politician is insecure about themselves. That’s why they can’t bear any criticism. But once they’re in the opposition, they talk about freedom of expression.
For example, this is “Anish Gawande”, a spokesman for NCP. As a party leader, I’m going to be the one speaking out against them. I’m not going to be the one speaking out against them.
And he believes that politicians have to be hypocrites. As a political party, I will not take action against my cartel because it’s getting more visibility, my cartel is getting enthused, this is something that’s good for my publicity. What’s the root of this problem? People in our society don’t believe in freedom of speech.
They believe that freedom of speech should only be for the speech that they like. This is the definition of freedom of speech in our society. There’s only one person who defends the freedom of speech of those people who don’t like it.
And that’s Kushal Mehra. Whether it’s Ranveer Alabadia’s case or Kunal Kamra’s case, Kushal Mehra has defended freedom of expression regardless of their political views. But this is a rare thing in our society.
There are two reasons for this. The first reason is legal. When we were free, our political leaders protested against the British to demand freedom of speech.
But as soon as we got our freedom, the same political leaders suppressed those laws. On the pretext of sedition, hurting religious sentiments, and defamation, freedom of speech was shut down. We recommend a book on how Jawaharlal Nehru suppressed freedom of speech as soon as he became the prime minister.
In 1951, a famous Urdu poet, Majrooh Sultanpuri was arrested for calling Jawaharlal Nehru Hitler in a poem. And the legacy that Jawaharlal Nehru started has been continued by all our political leaders. The second problem is that voters’ memory is very weak in our society.
Hypocrisy in Political Responses: A Look at Shiv Sena’s Double Standards on Free Speech
Because of this weak memory, a political leader can do anything. He can say left is right, but the voters won’t say anything. So politicians have calculated that if they support freedom of expression in the morning, and criticize it at night, the public won’t care.
You won’t see this in America. The reason behind this is culture. For years, the public has been told how important freedom of expression is for them.
So no political leader took advantage of this. But in India, there are many examples where people get offended. Five years ago, a lawyer filed a defamation case against the Netflix series, Hasmukh.
Why? Because the series was making fun of lawyers. But in our country, people need an excuse to get offended. Whereas we believe that in freedom of speech, it’s allowed to offend others.
If you want to offend and criticize a religion, it should also be allowed. In fact, we believe that in any free society, everyone should have the right to make fun of a religion or to criticize a religion. Nupur Sharma has this right and so does a comedian.
There are only two ways to solve this. Either top-down or bottom-up. The top-down method is when a leader says that he supports freedom of expression and you can criticize me but we won’t stop you.
This can happen if you believe in the Great Man Theory. The Great Man Theory is a 19th-century theory that states that all the great things in history happened because of great people. Those with extraordinary qualities were brave and those with amazing leadership skills.
According to this theory, great things happen when a man or a woman announces that he’ll change things. The other side is the bottom-up theory which states that things change when people demand it. So in support of freedom of expression, we need to change our society.
Shekhar Soman, a famous comedian and actor, hosted a comedy show called Movers and Shakers. In one episode, he made fun of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. What did PM Modi say recently? “Criticism is the soul of democracy”.
Criticism is the soul of democracy. The problem is that the same criticism is accepted by our society and politicians agree with it. We didn’t want to wait for the great man theory, So hopefully, we can bring a bottom-up change and make it acceptable to our society that freedom of expression is important.
But eventually, we realized that the benefits outweigh the costs. And it’s important to talk about freedom of expression. If you want to bring a bottom-up change, educate the people around you about freedom of expression.
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