New Delhi: Vir Das on “Two India’s” says that it is his job to put out satire and he will continue to write “love letters to my country” as long as he is able to do comedy. Stand-up comic Vir Das, facing a huge backlash over his viral “Two Indias” monologue at the Kennedy Centre in Washington.
“I think laughter is a celebration and when laughter and applause fill up a room… that’s a moment of pride. I think that any Indian who has a sense of humour, or understands satire, or watches my entire video, knows that that’s what happened in that room,” he told NDTV in an exclusive interview in New York.
“As an artiste you receive all kinds of feedback. But millions of people … they have given me love for my show.”
In the six-minute clip from the Kennedy Centre performance that has been widely shared and has sharply divided social media, Vir Das describes two contrasting faces of the country and refers to many controversial topics – from the Delhi gang-rape to the farmer protests to pollution – in broad strokes.
“I come from an India that has the largest working population under 30 on the planet but still listens to 75-year-old leaders with 150-year-old ideas,” he says in the monologue to wild applause.
While many on Twitter praised his words and shared the video or parts of it, Vir Das was also trolled viciously for extracts like this – “I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them during the night.” A BJP leader has filed a police complaint accusing him of vilifying India on foreign.
The people of India and many political leaders had expressed displeasure over the video posted on Vir Das’s Youtube. Actress Kanaga Ranaut also demanded to register a case against Das on his video a Not only this they also demanded for filing a FIR against Vir Das. But vir Das in the interview said that “As long he does comedy, he will continue to write love letters to the Country”
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