Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, appearing before the Privileges Committee of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, said he felt no remorse whatsoever about his remarks targeting Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, nor was he willing to tender any apology.
File Photo: IANS
Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, appearing before the Privileges Committee of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, said he felt no remorse whatsoever about his remarks targeting Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, nor was he willing to tender any apology. He responded to 24 questions posed to him by the panel during a cross questioning session.
The hearing, held at the Vidhan Bhavan on Thursday, discussed a breach of privilege complaint filed by BJP MLA Pravin Darekar. Committee chairman and BJP Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Prasad Lad said the panel informed Kamra that an unconditional apology could lead to the matter being “viewed differently”.
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According to Lad, Kamra’s lawyer indicated that they would discuss the issue and send a written response to the committee through email.
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After the closed-door hearing, Kamra tweeted on his X account “Respected Sir, maybe there was a communication issue but the way I remember the last 3 questions of my cross examination this evening: Do you feel remorse? No. Are you sorry about what you said? No. If you tender an unconditional apology, this matter will be looked at differently. No, I cannot, since my apology would not be sincere. Also it would set a terrible precedent for other artistes and their freedom”.
The controversy dates back to a parody song sung by Kamra in which he allegedly referred to Deputy CM Eknath Shinde as a “traitor (gaddaar)” indirectly, regarding political developments in Maharashtra. Kamra’s remarks led to a first information report (FIR), protests, and an attack on a comedy show venue by workers of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Kamra had sung the satirical parody with the lyrics “Thane city’s auto rickshaw, beard on his face, glasses on his eyes, now you see him but he disappears in Guwahati, look at him through my eyes and you’ll see a traitor, he’s less of a minister and more of a defector, he drills a hole in the plate he eats from, he’s seen more on the lap of Fadnavis than in the state secretariat)”.
During the live stage performance in Mumbai, Kunal Kamra, who used to reside in Mumbai a few years ago, sang the satirical parody to the tune of the ‘Bholi Si Surat’ song from the 1997 Bollywood film ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, which was perceived to be against Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, though Shinde himself was never directly named in Kamra’s song, whose video went viral on social media.
Kamra was accused of using the word ‘gaddaar’ (traitor) in his satirical parody song to describe a politician widely assumed to be Eknath Shinde. Kamra’s song was perceived to be an indirect reference to Shinde’s rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray and forming another rival Shiv Sena after splitting the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in 2022.
Allegedly, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Sushma Andhare also copied the song and sang it after which her performance went viral on social media. This led to BJP MLA Praveen Darekar moving a motion of contempt against both Kunal Kamra and Andhare. The Privileges Committee grilled Kamra about the lyrics of his song, its meaning as well as intentions behind singing it.
Due to the motion moved by BJP MLA Praveen Darekar, Kunal Kamra who has been residing in Tamil Nadu since a few years now, came to Mumbai after a year and appeared before the infringement committee of the legislature here. Kamra had appeared before the panel in an earlier hearing on March 10.
The Privileges Committee is expected to deliberate further about the issue after receiving written responses from Kamra’s side. No final decision has been announced yet.
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