5 life lessons we learned from Kapil Sharma's tweets to PM Modi

Last Friday, Kapil Sharma, ended up with his foot firmly in his mouth after he felt the best way to deal with reported corruption in BMC was to escalate it right to the big boss. Why Kapil Sharma thought it was a good idea to mock the PM’s ‘acche din’ narrative is anybody’s guess. While the sacrosanct rule of good comedy is to mock the high and mighty (and not complain about bribes you paid to build illegal office buildings), Sharma’s comedy usually consists of hitting below the belt with his personal brand of misogyny and racism. On Friday, there was a little comeuppance, as Kapil Sharma faced the wrath of a civic organisation, online bhakts and BJP leaders. Here are five things we learned from the entire episode:

We finally know how to get the BMC’s attention

The richest civic body in the country isn’t particularly known for taking criticism or feedback well. They are seldom known to hear you when you need them, and trying to file a complaint is as efficient as screaming on top of an empty cliff. However, when Sharma tweeted, tagging PM Modi, the machinery swung into action faster than you can say ‘Pothole’. All in all, now we all know how to reach the BMC, all we need to do is tag the PM and have 6 million followers on Twitter.

Kapil Sharma learns life isn’t a comedy set with a passive audience          

On his comedy show, Kapil Sharma usually has a passive audience (some of them have had horrifying experiences) and a Navjot Singh Sidhu who will laugh at anything that moves. But you can hardly expect such a reaction when you take a jibe at the PM of the country, particularly a man who received such a huge mandate. While the BMC’s chief vigilant officer promised strict action against the officials who asked for bribes, CM Fadnavis promised ‘Kapil bhai’ strict action. But it was only later that the real fun began.         

BJP’s Ram Kadam wondered why Kapil hadn’t complained when the incident took place. Manoj Tiwari pointed out that if Sharma was paying Rs 15 crore as income tax, his ‘acche din’ were already there. Then the BMC released documents which showed that Kapil Sharma had received a notice for illegal construction and a complaint had been filed against him at the Versova station.

Oh and he is also being accused of destroying mangroves, so it seems like Mr Sharma is going to visit some courts in the upcoming months. But there’s one question that remains, did his Comedy Night alumni's party launch have anything to do with the tweet? Kapil Sharma tried to save the situation by saying he wasn't blaming any particular party, but when you tag the PM, it's pretty clear which party you are targetting. 

MNS will do anything to remain relevant

The party that started off as a radical version of the Shiv Sena is finding it hard to remain relevant as ‘beat up outsiders’ no longer remains a real political plank to get votes. The party was at the forefront of the agitation against Tanmay Bhat’s Snapchat video and was recently seen beating up a fruit vendor. After Kapil's tweet, Raj Thackeray’s party acted with the frenzy of a diabetic at a sweetshop, as they protested outside Kapil Sharma’s house at night and also filed a complaint against the comedian for refusing to divulge he had paid a bribe. Simply put, MNS is more desperate right now than an ageing star trying to get into Bigg Boss.

We are starting to blame PM Modi for everything

We seem to have arrived at a point in our democracy where we have started to treat Modi as a stand-in for God and have started to blame him for everything. From the rise in intolerance, to beef murders, to anything that crosses Arvind Kejriwal’s mind, we’ve collectively as nation blamed the PM for every fault. The only thing we haven’t blamed him for is the author’s 10 kg weight gain in the last two years, which occurred during Modi’s regime. So it’s hard to really castigate Sharma for blaming Modi for the working of a civic body which has nothing to do with the Centre, because we’ve all been doing the same thing.

It’s time to retire the 'Acche Din' phrase

Legend has it that when a joke is told on Kapil’s set, it is taken out of circulation from family Whatsapp groups. The best consequence of the tweet is that perhaps we can hasten the end of the phrase that is 'Acche Din'. There are some phrases that come to define politicians. For Obama it was 'Yes We Can', for Indira it was ‘Garibi Hatao’, for Trump it’s ‘Make America Great Again’ and for Modi it was ‘Acche Din’. The promise of Acche Din during the 2014 campaign also became an albatross around Modi’s neck so much so, that it’s become a phrase that one uses every time something goes wrong. Jokes go to die on Kapil Sharma’s show, and it’s time to put the final nail on the 'Acche Din' phrase.