On 3rd October, Delhi Police raided several locations in connection with the online portal NewsClick, which had received several crores in funding from China. One of the locations raided was of comedian-cum-satirist Sanjay Rajoura, who has worked for NewsClick in the past. He is one of the three members of “Aisi Taisi Democracy”. Rajoura, who has a history of making Hinduphobic comments, faced a police complaint in 2020 for mocking Hindu deities. In 2021, Rajoura faced Me Too allegations. Rajoura has also appeared on The Quint, Newslaundry and other leftist platforms.
Sanjay Rajoura mocked Hindus especially Brahmins and Rajputs
X (formerly Twitter) user Ankur Singh shared screenshots of a few of his posts of Rajoura on social media that clearly showed his bias towards Hindus, especially Brahmins and Rajputs. In one of the posts from 2017, Rajoura called for beating Brahmins with shoes. At that time, Rajoura used the X handle “UrbanTucchha”. “Tucchha” is a word used in both Hindi and Punjabi that has several meanings, such as “worthless” or “someone with a bad character”.
In several tweets, he has mocked the Rajput community and called them illicit children of Mughals.
In 2017, Rajoura, no longer on X, got into a feud with another X user, GappistanRadio and threatened to beat him up. Later, he deleted the tweets.
Sanjay Rajoura mocked Hindu deities
In May 2020, a complaint was filed against Rajoura for derogatory comments against Bhagwan Ganesha and Bhagwan Shiva during the “Azaadi Tour” of Aisi Taisi Democracy. Hindu activist Ramesh Solanki filed the complaint with Mumba Police.
Filed complaint against @urbantucchha and Team Aisi Taisi Democracy
— Ramesh Solanki🇮🇳 (@Rajput_Ramesh) May 3, 2020
Not just filling complaint but will make sure Sanjay and team is legally punished for mocking Hindu Gods and Goddesses and hurting Hindu sentiments
Hindu peace loving hai coward nahi #JaiSriRam https://t.co/5hW0WJU53u pic.twitter.com/kncOuOf7S7
In a video clip, Rajoura can be heard mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement about the advancement of science and medicine in ancient India. “He said the first plastic surgery took place in India. Do you know whose? Of Ganesh. Even if I believe that the world’s first plastic surgery took place in India, at least you could’ve done a good job. This shows how you shouldn’t do such things after smoking up,” he said to an audience roaring with laughter.
Me Too accusations against Sanjay Rajoura
In September 2021, a woman who used an alias, Tara, accused Rajoura of sexual misconduct. She revealed that Rajoura had reportedly coerced her into having oral sex in a public place despite her reservations. She also accused him of requesting nudes from her and posting an unsolicited nude image of a woman, proposing a threesome.
She wrote that she kept overlooking the advances for months since she admired the comedian for his work. His public persona clouded her judgement, she admitted. She was intimidated by the fact that Rajoura knew many influential people from the film fraternity. She alleged that Rajoura would ask her to send him unsafe and naked pictures. Even when she told him it was too soon or made excuses expressing hesitancy, he persisted and found loopholes in her reasons. She further revealed how Rajoura coerced her into performing oral sex at a public place.
Sanjay Rajoura appeared on several leftist portals
Newslaundry started a program titled “Yeh Bhi Theek Hai” with Sanjay Rajoura and Kunal Kamra in July 2022. Eight episodes of the program were released by the portal, where they discussed secularism, comedy, free speech and religion in India. Both Kamra and Rajoura were hired for the program by Newslaundry despite their controversial background.
He appeared on The Quint as well. He has written two articles in The Quint titled “Kanwar Yatra: Are India’s Public Spaces Only for the Rich?” and “The India Vir Das Forgot About: An Open Letter to Comics on Caste”. In the report on Kanwar Yatra, he presented himself as if he supported the Kanwariyas but subtly called them unruly and stated they could become violent anytime.
