New Delhi: Amid the ongoing row triggered by controversial remarks by podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia, Political analyst and internet personality Tehseen Poonawala said bad jokes shouldn’t lead to violence as he comes out in former’s defence. This comes at a time Ranveer Allahabadia is facing probe following multiple cases against his ‘crass’ remarks on Samay Raina’s ‘India’s got latent’. “Cracking a bad joke is just that, a bad joke, and the punishment to it is self-censorship, self-regulation, that isn’t violence. Ranveer cracked a bad joke, it may have offended someone’s sensibilities but it didn’t cause violence,” said Poonawala, while appearing as guest on Mirror Now.
He called the outrage an attack on freedom of speech. Poonawala said while the Parliament was united on a “social media” issue, “a convicted rapist is out every time there’s an election in this country. No one in the Parliament chooses to react on it.”
“There are a lot of ways to prevent your child from seeing this. This was a ticketed show for adults only, for a subscriber base. It was a show that was marketed like dark humor. If you don’t like dark humor, please shut up and get out, don’t watch it. I think it’s filth, I didn’t want to watch it but you can’t impose conditions on a ticketed show, which is subscriber based, which is adult only, which says it is a show for dark humor,” he added.
Death threats to Ranveer Allahbadia
Meanwhile, Allahabadia is not just facing heat on social media and through police cases, but he claimed to have received death threats. However, he said he was cooperating with investigation agencies.
Accepting his remarks as “disrespectful” and “insensitive”, Allahbadia extended an apology for the second time over his comments. “I am watching death threats pour in from people saying they want to kill me and hurt my family. People have invaded my mother’s clinic posing as patients. I am feeling scared and I don’t know what to do,” he said in a statement put out on his social media.
