Criticising YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, said here on Monday that anyone who crosses the limits of decency will face action.
“I have been informed about this, though I have not watched it yet. I came to know that it was very vulgar and this was wrong. Everyone has freedom of speech but this freedom ends when we encroach upon others’ freedom. Everyone has limits, if anyone crosses them, action will be taken,” Fadnavis said.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also said the fact that such comments draw applause must worry us. “This isn’t creative. It’s perverted and we can’t normalise such perverse behaviour as cool. The fact that this sick comment met loud applause must worry us all,” she said.
Meanwhile, two Mumbai lawyers Ashish Rai and Pankaj Mishra, have filed a police complaint against Allahbadia, who is known as the BeerBiceps Guy on YouTube. They have written to Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and State Women’s Commission seeking an FIR against Allahbadia and other comedians including Samay Raina and Apoorva Makhija, about crude remarks made on the ‘India’s Got Latent’ YouTube show. They said that the remark disrespected women and must hence attract action.
Earlier, Allahbadia’s remarks triggered outrage on social media, with many claiming vulgarity was being passed off as comedy in shows such as ‘India’s Got Latent’. Lyricist Neelesh Misra shared a video clip of Allahbadia’s remark and said that the comedians have “zero sense of responsibility”.
“I am also not surprised at all that four people at the desk – and lots in the audience – celebrated this and had a great laugh. You, the audience, normalised and celebrated this and people like these,” Misra said in a post tweeted on X.
“Decency is not incentivised in India by platforms or audiences. So creators are stooping lower and lower for audience reach and revenue. Banal, crass, insensitive are words only for boring uncool people. These creators can say anything in the name of freedom of speech and get away with it,” Misra said.
Allahbadia has apologised for his comments and said “comedy is not my forte” and that “it wasn’t cool”. He tweeted an apology message on X with the caption, “I shouldn’t have said what I said on India’s Got Latent. I’m sorry.” In the video message, he said, “My comment wasn’t just inappropriate, it was not even funny. Comedy is not my forte, I am just here to say sorry”.