HYDERABAD: Law and order — apart from being a 20-season classic — is one of the most important pillars of society. It’s the glue that holds it together and the police is the glue bottle that knows where and how to apply it. Growing up, the only time I heard about the police station was when I refused to finish my spinach and my mom threatened me with prison time.
That was a lie, of course (there’s no IPC against not eating spinach), but over the years, sillier things have made it to the police station. Actor-comedian Vir Das is in a soup right now with two different police complaints filed against him in two different States for two different reasons for a poem where he said that there’s ‘two different Indias’ (there’s a Maggi joke in there somewhere).
The poem was written and performed by Das, who over the years has had two sides too — filling Kennedy Center with his comedy and emptying film theatres with Mastizaade. Irrespective of where you stand on the poem, it’s the police complaint that bothers me. From the perspective of the cops, it feels like a real downgrade in work.
Being loyal public servants, they don’t turn it down, but I’m sure deep down it hurts them. The generation before them dawned the Khaki, rocked the Aviators, rode a Bullet to work and tried to hunt down dons like Dawood. The current crop just walks into the station every day not knowing what’s going to come their way. These physically trained Police Academy graduates -- who have an uphill task of maintaining law and order in our overpopulated country -- are being forced to register complaints on wordplay and sarcasm.
Even though both sides of the political spectrum will blame each other for this unfortunate condition of our guardians, I blame Salman Khan (hear me out!). The first case of an unreasonable complaint was registered in Dabangg when Sonakshi Sinha walked up to a cop and said ‘Thappad se darr nahi lagta sahab, pyaar se lagta hai’, and Salman registered that case.
It was the first time a police complaint was filed on basis of a ‘sentiment’. Seems ridiculous? Well, it has a stronger logic than most ‘offence-related complaints’ registered over the past decade. At this point, the country just feels like a bunch of crying fifth-graders and the policemen are the class teachers who are trying to control them. And if you ask them, they’ll tell you that there’s just one India and it is taking offence to everything. (Bhavneet is a stand-up comedian and this may be his new material)
Actorcomedian Vir Das is in a soup for a poem where he said that there’s ‘two different Indias’