Actually, Vir Das doesn’t deserve this article ‘par kyaa Karen control he nahi hota’.
He has kicked 1.4 Billion that is 18% of 7.8 billion people on the planet below the belt in less than seven minutes! He has mocked his own nation in the heart of the US where the media lobby and the un-intellect are constantly trying to show India down in one form or the other. Opportunistic, one would say. I have to give ten on ten to Vir Das for the timing of it all. I will tell you how. I am, of course, very annoyed as an Indian.
He, I was told had become famous in India as a comedian but I don’t understand what more he wanted? Yes yeh Dill Mange more!
In June 1999, when Capt Vikram Batra was assigned the task of capturing Point 5140, during the Kargil war, he chose his success signal to be ‘Yeh Dil Maange More’. He wanted more action in which he died for his country and was given Param Vir Chakra for the supreme sacrifice. Now, which Chakra is Das craving for, for his fist-full of extra topping of fame?
Oh my apologies, how can I compare a self-seeking comedian with the soul of a martyr, an Indian Army officer. It will be an insult.
Also, some people had a problem in India about PM Narendra Modi wearing a camouflaged dress while visiting the Indian troops in border areas but I was surprised at seeing a joker wearing something similar to a camouflaged jacket at the Kennedy centre! Was it to give himself a false feeling of security or show he was a great warrior of India. How did the media miss this?
George Bernard Shaw once said, “Never wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig enjoys it,’” And yes the pig is enjoying it.
All this was not sporadic- it was well-rehearsed and well-engineered even for a common man to see. He got exactly what he wanted – traction. Imagine the return on the investment of 7 minutes- the finest seven minutes of his life. For the next two days, almost all Indian news channels were discussing him and worse than that a few of his ilk supported him. ‘Yuk’
This was a masterstroke. Sunil Pal a standup comedian has gained a lot of respect from the people of India, at least from me. He was frank enough to say that this act was just to get some cheap publicity for garnering applause and instant gratification. Glad we also have sensible people like Pal.
People would have appreciated (at least I would have) had you talked about how pussy footing Americans who ran away from Afghanistan in the dead of the night left behind billions worth of arms with the Taliban, leaving it as an open wound for the region to clean up. Or the Americans bombing and killing thousands of innocent civilians in their precision bombings. You need not praise your country for administrating 110 crore corona vaccines in record time as that would be too much to ask from jokers or comedians like you, but at least it would have shown Americans the mirror about the number of deaths they clocked due to Covid which was more than what we had with four times the population.
In Bollywood andaaz let me say “Agar dum hai to unke ghar mein ghus kar marr… apne desh ke peeth par waar na kar”.
And you could have taken a jibe at women’s condition in Afghanistan with your chicken neck at stake. There will be plenty of material on the subject- the net is full of it.
You tried a litmus test on Indians that they would keep mum and possibly cheer you…. yes some of your ilk did. But mostly, people hated you for it. Mocked you.
In this entire episode, I am sure Vir Das must be laughing. I can imagine that sly smile on his face. He must be saying to himself, “doesn’t mean anything to me as long as you talk about me on social media and look at such senior anchors giving me full 60 minutes of uninterrupted debate with so many budheejivis in my support.’ By the way, a 10-second spot for advertisement on the national channels costs upwards of 4 lakhs and I got 360 such slots (60 minutes) free on every channel; all paid for with no cost to create a promo too”.
While it was important to call him out so people know just how wrong he was, he milked this incident to the hilt. Even with that facetious statement that he issued. But, at least he did issue a statement. A few years ago, these clowns would abuse us and face no repercussions. Today, while they milk the situation, at least they feel the heat. At least that much.
