Indian RSS has been badly exposed in the recent past by beleaguered liberals. While the Indian North-Eastern state of Tripura remains in the headlines due to the targeting of the Muslim community and the state government filing cases against human rights activists and minority rights flag bearers, another Indian stand-up comedian is in the line of fire due to his show at Kennedy Centre on the Potomac. As reported by the Washington Post , Vir Das told his Washington audience he needed to talk about his homeland. He didn’t come from one India, but two Indias, seemingly at odds. Today’s India is a country that is proudly vegetarian yet oppresses protesting farmers, it’s a country that worships women but grapples with horrific rape cases. It’s a country brimming with a huge, young population but is led by septuagenarian leaders with outdated ideas.
The Washington Post also stated that two Indias are responding to Das’ soliloquy on the Potomac: one with rapturous applause, another with sputtering India. Meanwhile, Godi media went into an ascetic overdrive to label Vir Das as anti-national and an agent of hostile powers.
RSS sponsored portal OpIndia termed Das’ monologue an “unhinged rant” against India. OpIndia wrote: Das “tried to paint Hindus as intolerant and antagonistic to Muslims” in addition to suggesting “that Hindus become adversarial to Muslims whenever the Indian cricket team loses to Pakistan. However, nothing can be further from the truth.”
It is no secret that Pakistani cricket win over India in the recently-held ICC World cup drew a sharp response from RSS Bhakts against the Muslim community and the Kashmiris of IIOK. Criminal charges were levelled against some Kashmiri students who celebrated Pakistan’s victory over India; not realising that IIOK was a disputed territory which doesn’t belong to India. Like Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Kashmiris have suffered under Indian oppression for the past seven decades.
Before his so called anti-national rant, Vir Das was a Bollywood star with international acclaim, much touted by the Shining India cabal, including andh-bhakts. Vir Das has an interesting background, born in Dehradun, raised in Nigeria and educated in India and America. As reported by imdb.com he obtained a bachelor’s degree from Knox College, Illinois, in Economics and Theatre with a concentration in performance. It was at Knox that Das first explored stand-up comedy with his first special, ‘Brown Men Can’t Hump’, which debuted in Knox’s Harbach Theatre. He received a Richter Scholarship for Theatre and later went on to win the Colton Performance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting from Knox. He was also a teaching assistant for Beginning Acting at Knox. At Havard, Das trained as a method actor for six months.
Das returned to India in April 2003 and since then has performed over 100 comedy shows in all the major cities. He debuted six comedy specials written, directed by and starring him at the India Habitat Center. These include Brown Men Can’t Hump, Not for Members Only, Bored of The Things!, Who Let the Das Out?, Son of a Switch! and VIRagra.
He started his career on TV when he hosted two TV shows for Indian TV channel ‘Zoom’. His second stint was his own stand-up comedy late night show ‘Ek Rahin Vir’. Das also hosted ‘Top Drive - Getaway’ for Indian channel ‘ Star World’.
What has hurt the RSS Cabal the most is that Vir Das used an international platform to expose hypocrisy of the Fascist regime of Narendra Modi in a comedy show. Few of the happenings in the past two months would indicate that Vir Das has just touched the RSS hypocrisy in a subtle way, on the ground, things are much worse in Modi’s India.
Last week, Modi inaugurated the newly refurbished railway station of Habibganj by changing its name to Rani Kamlapati, an obvious taunt to Muslims in India. As per a RSS history book, Rani Kamlapati’s state in Bhopal was captured by an Afghan commander Dost Muhammad by deceit. Interestingly Rani Kamlapati’s famous Ginnorgarh Fort, which is about 61 kilometres from Bhopal, remains in a dilapidated condition. Modi should have restored the fort instead of renaming Habibganj Railway station, but that’s how it works in RSS’ two Indias.
Similar stories of oppression of Muslims continue to resonate in Occupied Kashmir. The Indian Army claimed on 15 November that it had killed two Kashmiri militants in an encounter in Hyderpura, later it was proven that these were innocent Kashmiris. The Occupied Kashmir administration has ordered probe in Hyderpura killings. So far, the dead bodies of the slain individuals have not been handed over to families and the call to hand over the remains back to the families for last rites and burial have increased.
Bollywood star and Modi supporter Ms Kangana Ranaut, who was awarded the Padma Shri on 8 November, raised a storm by declaring that India did not get independence in 1947, it was a bheek (alms and charity) doled out to Congress leadership, India became independent in 2014 (when Modi became the Prime minister).
These are few of the examples of two Indias that Vir Das was pointing out at Kennedy Centre.
Lo and behold, Vir Das was booked by RSS stooges; News 18 broke the story on 17 November that comedian Vir Das’ ‘Two Indias’ monologue delivered at the Kennedy Center has kicked up a storm. A complaint has been filed against him for making “derogatory statements against India” . The complaint was lodged with the Mumbai Police by high court lawyer Ashutosh Dubey, who serves as the legal advisor of BJP-Maharashtra Palghar District.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra has declared that Vir Das will not be allowed to perform in the state.
The RSS agenda of establishing Hindutva Republic is now out in the open. Modi’s fascist regime has already assessed and decided that it can do whatever it wants through majoritarian power of vote. It can cross all the red lines without drawing any meaningful international condemnation, as far as Muslim community in India remains the primary target.
We will end the piece with a quote from an Indian journalist, Ms Nidhi Razdan who tweeted, “I come from two Indias. One where a comedian who points out obvious complexities of our country faces police cases. The other, where an actor likens India’s hard fought independence to “begging” but has got the nation’s highest civilian honour”.