Kanal vs Kamra is about mob against citizen

The debate is not about humour but about what sort of people we want to be and what we wish for in our democracy

- Barkha Dutt

In the perfect example of comedy becoming tragedy, and then becoming farce, the Shiv Sena's Rahul Kanal has written to BookMyShow, urging the ticketing platform to not sell any show by stand-up artiste Kunal Kamra.

This may seem outlandish and outrageous. It is in fact perfectly plausible when you think about who is writing the letter. Kanal is the "youth leader" of the Sena who led a group of vandals into The Habitat, where Kamra had performed and taken a swipe at the Maharashtra deputy CM Eknath Shinde.

We have all seen the videos of the men who hurled cuss-words against the club's management as they uprooted and threw chairs and pretty much destroyed the club. Kanal was their gang leader, and there are images of him cheerfully waving from the police van as he was taken into detention. The vandals got bail from a court a few hours later. And Kanal, entirely unafraid, announced on my show, among others, that he would not apologise for what he had done. In fact, he vowed to repeat it as required, if Kamra did not back off from his comments on Shinde.