‘Comedian’ Akash Banerjee is a popular figure in liberal circles due to his propaganda against the NDA Government at the center. He has often appeared with ‘woke’ Kunal Kamra and Dhruv Rathee to offer his insights into the political events of the day. On Sunday, he created quite the stir after trivialising the crime of rape.
Akash Banerjee, in his efforts to use ’eminent intellectual’ Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s resignation to propagandise against the Modi Government, compared the incident with the heinous rape of Nirbhaya. He claimed that Mehta’s resignation was academia’s ‘Nirbhaya moment’, comparing a resignation with rape and thus, trivialising the horrendous brutality Nirbhaya suffered.
The atrocity that Nirbhaya suffered requires no elaboration. But it’s not just Nirbhaya he has trivialised here. Banerjee has downplayed the torment that every victim of rape is made to endure by her tormentors. For a ‘comedian’ to compare a resignation with a crime as heinous as rape speaks volumes for his own inability to empathise with the terrible agony victims of rape are forced to endure. For Akash Banerjee, rape appears to be a political prop to be used to take pot-shots at those he disagrees with politically.
Banerjee’s rape analogy has drawn unequivocal condemnation by people across the board but there were few who were unable to look past their morbid hatred for Narendra Modi and his government. One of them was far-left agitator Kavita Krishnan. She said, “My first instinct was to question this as a ‘rape analogy’. But to be fair, this is perhaps an analogy about the moment of social realisation – that it is not just public universities that are facing Govt interference & attacks, but the private, so-called ‘autonomous’ ones too”.
Intriguingly, her current stance is quite inconsistent with that she has taken in the past regarding rape analogies. In the past, she has called them “sexist” and “not funny”. One wonders what has changed since then. Nevertheless, she continues to posture as a ‘feminist’.
Banerjee’s rape analogy attracted strong criticism from people on social media. People were incensed that he had compared a resignation with a crime so brutal.
Comparing a crime where women’s private parts were destroyed with iron rod to petty politics in some elite university.
— गोल गप्पा 🤓 (@Golgappa_09) March 23, 2021
This is why women security in this country is a joke.
Thoooooo hai tum sab pe…!!! https://t.co/BlOSIhenFB
And this is how ladies &gentlemen, tropes of rape are used to justify self serving masculine nonsense in narrative building.
— शुभ्रास्था (Shubhrastha) (@Shubhrastha) March 23, 2021
Akash, stop equating the trauma of a horrible gangrape with cheap politicking. And stop, just stop, using rape as a conceit to normalise verbal violence. https://t.co/yvsik9tZ6r
Shamelessness and insensitivity has no bounds when the so called ‘liberals’ feel defeated and can compare resignation from a job with such a brutal gang rape.
— Vivek R (@vivekranjan0311) March 23, 2021
Have some shame at least. Do some reflection. https://t.co/5ZBfAaFKiQ
Despite widespread condemnation, Akash Banerjee is yet to offer an apology. It appears evident that people such as Banerjee and Kavita Krishnan have been so absorbed by their hatred for the Modi Government that they see no wrong in trivialising rape. His comrades Dhruv Rathee and Kunal Kamra are conspicuously silent regarding the whole matter as well. Indeed, the Modi Derangement Syndrome has engulfed them so entirely that they appear to believe comparing a resignation with rape is appropriate and acceptable public discourse.
