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Speaking to The Quint, standup comedian Anirban Dasgupta expressed support for fellow comic Kunal Kamra after Indigo and Air India decided to suspend Kamra for heckling Arnab Goswami on a flight.
How do you react to Indigo and Air India suspending Kunal Kamra from boarding flights belonging to their airlines because he had posted a video of him questioning Arnab Goswami on a flight?
Anirban Dasgupta: I am not surprised at all, because all these airlines are under tremendous pressure to take action and so this is a consequence that is expected. Politicians have been holding up planes forever, and they have been creating ruckus and inconveniencing passengers, putting them at risk with their antics, but nothing ever happens to them, they never get banned.
So, it’s not surprising that someone like Kunal, who genuinely doesn’t have power is being at the receiving end of this action. I think that Kunal understands this. Before doing something like this, he understands that there will be consequences and he is okay with it, and that’s the part I’m most impressed with, because it’s brave.
Anirban Dasgupta: What Kamra did is really brave and courageous, and people will remember this for a long time. This is true speaking up to power. Getting banned by airlines as a consequence of this, according to me, is a badge of honour for Kamra.
Kamra only has things to lose by doing this. He is getting banned, he was thrown out of his house earlier. But he is still doing it.
You have to understand who is abusing power, and who is speaking up against it.
What is the one thing that you would like to tell the Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, who posted a tweet asking airlines to follow Indigo’s lead and take action against Kunal Kamra?
Anirban Dasgupta: I expect more ministers to talk about it and try to use their power to inconvenience Kamra as much as possible, so I’m not at all surprised with that.
But I would like to tell the Minister that this whole regime won’t end well for anybody, this whole cycle of violence and oppression never ends well for anybody, whether it is the masses or the Minister. I just want to wish him good luck, and I hope he enjoys flying at least!
Anirban Dasgupta: Things have changed in the last five years. Comedians are always thinking about the consequences of their actions. But whether it’s five years back or today, Kamra has never thought about it, which is the courage that he has shown in the face of adversity.
This is the conversation at the dinner table, this is the conversation with your friends. Eventually, everybody will speak up because the government is not really leaving us with any option.
Look at the protests that are happening all across the country, that didn’t happen two years back, four years back. It was for everybody to see that things are going this way. The government didn’t change its stance overnight. But earlier, people were still a little evasive, they were on the fence.
It depends on what the breaking point is for each individual. Everybody has a tipping point. For some it could be the CAA-NRC issue, for some it could be demonetisation, for others it could be something else.
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