Jai ho, outrage nation!, writes Priyanka Chaturvedi

I can’t start this week’s write-up without gloating about how I had my ‘told-you-so’ moment in last week’s column. I had mentioned how every topic under the sun is a potentially controversial topic. 

We Indians love our outrage and I can prove that we can go to any lengths. For all my tech-savvy talk, I hate to admit I don’t know what SnapChat is except for knowing that it is a huge hit with my nieces and of them spending time on it to stay connected. Sigh, to be a millennial!  

I have now downloaded SnapChat so that I am totally clued in whenever next outrage comes calling from there. Well, it is another thing that I don’t know anyone on it except my nephews and nieces. Yes, I am old, but yes, I shall overcome the handicap of not knowing much of the most talked-of app! 

While I personally found the entire Latadidi vs Sachin Tendulkar joke tasteless, at the same time, I would have never imagined the outrage over it, would reach epic proportions of near-stupidity. Maybe I don’t understand insult comedy, maybe I am old school on that front, but yet I’d stand firmly on the side of freedom of speech.  

If the comedian has broken any law, let the law of the land prevail. But one cannot threaten him physical harm on the basis of a joke gone wrong. Like I said in last week’s column, we are living up to the title of Outrage Nation. Reminds me of the oft-repeated quote ‘I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.’  

But then for a moment, forget the political parties reacting the way they are expected to react, a senior comedian took the argument a notch lower with his remarks on the kind of audience that enjoys such humour.

Here it is, quoted verbatim, hold your breath, “Half the audiences are gays and lesbians who like his sort of comedy, because as it is, they want to only dirty the society.” Of course, this too led to an outrage. It’s a circle, I tell you, just choose the side of the outrage you are on! 

Considering all other issues of national importance can be set aside to make this a national story, it’s time to find more social media platforms for news channels to create their TRP-driven debates to outrage over. Behti ganga main kyun na haath dho liye jaayein? If this is what the viewer wants, this is what he gets! 

So, while I figure out how SnapChat works, I am very certain we would have moved on  to something else to outrage over, my only hope being that at least let it be worthy of an outrage. Till then, ho hum!