Popular comedian Kunal Kamra sports a T-shirt showing a dog urinating on three letters, ‘RSS’. A serving IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh says that reservations on caste basis should continue till his son is not able to marry or have a “relationship” with a Brahmin’s daughter. That is the daily level of abuse Brahmins are subjected to.
All those who abuse Brahmins use the “Brahmin and RSS” interchangeably. Imagine similar abuse being hurled at some other castes, particularly a “scheduled caste”. The person will be instantly booked under the draconian Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that is non-bailable. It is probably only India that allows so much “freedom of expression”.
Take the example of Kunal Kamra, a serial offender who has been getting away with law in the name of “freedom of expression”. He has been surviving on the oxygen of publicity. He wilfully and viciously resorts to provocative actions in the safe knowledge that he will get away with everything he does.
His latest act about mocking the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) by sporting a T-shirt with a dog urinating at the ‘R’, ‘S’ and ‘S’ letters, is outrageously provocative and calls for firm and strict action under relevant laws. Kamra is entitled to his freedom of expression to criticise the RSS for its ideology. But resorting to such outrageous acts cannot be acceptable in a civilised and law-abiding society and must not be condoned.
It is not for the first time that he has resorted to such provocative actions. Whether trying to bully a prominent television news anchor or describing a chief minister as a traitor, such actions are evidently aimed at getting publicity. In the first case of bullying the news anchor he was taken off the flying list and in the second incident an FIR was registered against him. Thanks to the protection provided to him against any arrest by the courts, Kamra got away with his abusive acts.
Having legal protection in the previous case, now the comedian-turned-activist seems to be emboldened further. Having run into the law on a few occasions, Kamra has shifted to Puducherry. In the previous case he was granted anticipatory bail by the court.
Kamra is a professional comedian and claims to be a “political satirist” as well. However, in his comedy he has only been targeting the BJP/ RSS and no other political party. Although he describes himself sarcastically as a “card-holding CPI member” his ideological leanings are obvious.
He is entitled to his political beliefs even as a comedian. It is his discretion to choose or ignore his targets. But how far he can use his creativity to target his political opponents does have a limit. He cannot be abusive and insulting. Sporting a T-shirt with RSS written on it and showing a dog urinating on the three letters is obviously aimed at provoking people.
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On the face of it there may not seem anything criminally offending about his act. He has intelligently printed the T-shirt where letter ‘R’ can be said to be ‘P’. This has apparently been done for legal defence, thus further proving his intention to hurt people and yet remain legally safe. But his intentions are obvious to offend people who believe in or support the RSS ideology and hurt their feelings. RSS, according to a renowned magazine, has about 50 lakh members. Does this not amount to hurting the feelings of all those people who believe in the RSS ideology?
Everyone, including Kamra, is entitled to fight against and criticise the RSS ideology, but being abusive and insulting in such a scornful manner only reveals the pathological hatred one seems to be suffering from.
Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge supported the demand for banning the RSS. His son, Priyank Kharge, who is a minister in the Karnataka government has been consistently demanding a ban on the RSS. While Rahul Gandhi has always been critical of the RSS, he has never demanded banning the RSS. He always says that it is a fight between the Congress and the RSS ideology. He does accuse the RSS of trying to divide and polarise people, but he has never been abusive of the organisation.
RSS is not even a political organisation. Although it does support the Bharatiya Janata Party and deputes its leaders regularly and routinely to the BJP, yet it tries to maintain a distance from the party. The RSS claims that it has been involved in the social reconstruction in the country with focus on the Hindu society. Why should anyone be so pathologically hateful towards this organisation?
The abuse against the RSS as well as Brahmins has been mainstreamed to the extent that anyone and everyone can do it at will. If anything wrong takes place anywhere in the country, some people like a senior Supreme Court lawyer will attribute it to “Brahminical mind-set”. It is these same people who make it look like that the RSS and the Brahmins are one and the same thing, as if every Brahmin is an RSS supporter and the RSS consists of Brahmins only.
Such acts of abuse must be dealt with the same stringency as the abuse against the SCs and STs. Because, these abuses are hurled with a similar mind-set driven by a deep pathological hatred that seeks to create divisions within the society.
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