A strong opposition is a must for any healthy democracy to survive. And who knows better about that than us Indians. I mean, WTF, right? Where is everybody? Well, I mean, Kunal Kamra has been doing a far better job but he can’t really fight elections, can he? That said, he’s been doing a real fine job. So here’s to him:
1. He’s asked the Prime Minister to resign.
2. He’s gone out of his way to talk to the media. He actually called out Arnab in public and shut him up.
3. He has no issues blaming the government and Modi ji for the COVID disaster.
4. He’s called out even opposition parties for corruption and mismanagement, like the time he said the Congress party was like a government-run hospital.
5. He’s also stood up to the Supreme Court and with class. He called out the SC and Justice DY Chandrachud for allotting hearing dates to people like Arnab while journalists and activists rotted away in jails.
DY Chandrachud is a flight attendant serving champagne to first class passengers after they’re fast tracked through, while commoners don’t know if they’ll ever be boarded or seated, let alone served *Justice*.
6. While every important person in the country was either silent or was praising the demonetisation disaster in 2016, he deadass did a stand up set around it.
7. He was one of the first celebrity to defend JNU students. This was at a time when even the opposition parties didn’t want to openly pick sides.
8. He stood up for other comedians who were facing jail time for their jokes, like Munawar Farooqui.
We are witnessing an assault on the freedom of speech and expression with comedians like Munawar Farooqui being jailed for jokes that they have not even made, and school students being interrogated for sedition.
-Kunal Kamra
9. He also told the Supreme Court that jokes are just jokes and are meant to be taken as such.
Just as the Supreme Court values the faith the public places in it (and seeks to protect it by the exercise of its criminal contempt jurisdiction), it should also trust the public not to form its opinions of the Court on the basis of a few jokes on Twitter… the public’s faith in the judiciary is founded on the institution’s own actions and not on any criticism or commentary about it.
10. He actually once explained that the government was like a telecom company and we paid taxes for its services. There was no need to get emotional if someone criticised Vodafone if the service sucked, he said.
Well, the opposition certainly could learn a bit and maybe, sometimes, do its job.