Your social media feed must be full of statuses, opinions and blogs about Tanmay Bhat, the Mumbai-based comedian who has got himself in the middle of a controversy over a spoof on singer Lata Mangeshkar and former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Some condemn Tanmay’s video and some condemn the ones condemning his video. This controversy has given birth to two schools of thoughts, one believing that the comedian has gone a bit too far with his understanding of humor by ‘insulting’ the legends and the other who think that it’s just a joke and people should rather be tolerant.
Author Chetan Bhagat – who’s Internet’s favourite and Twitterati leaves no chance to troll him – belongs to the latter and thinks that dragging Bhat to the courts and taking him to jail for his video is stretching the topic a little too much. But Twitterati slammed him, saying it’s not a joke to be insulting legends.
The author tweeted, “You cannot arrest people for making jokes. Even if the jokes are bad. Really.”
Best of Express Premium
You cannot arrest people for making jokes. Even if the jokes are bad. Really.
— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) May 30, 2016
And Twitterati seems furious. Here’s how they reacted.
@chetan_bhagat these r not jokes, deliberate attempts to insult @mangeshkarlata @sachin_rt . Ask @thetanmay to do it on mother/grandmother
— Kailash Wagh (@kailashwg) May 30, 2016
@chetan_bhagat Mr best selling author I hope you hv gone through all the objectionable tweets by @thetanmay before giving GYAAN..
— Asha Bisht (@AashaBisht) May 30, 2016
@chetan_bhagat The jokes are not bad but in poor taste and using disgusting and foul language for 2 Bharat Ratna recipients is disgusting
— Sumeet Rewari (@sumsrewari) May 30, 2016
@chetan_bhagat Bad jokes r acceptable not that filth this psychopath @thetanmay spreading since a long time now.
— Asha Bisht (@AashaBisht) May 30, 2016
@chetan_bhagat whose definition of joke? Even one which sounds like that of a paedophile? FOE has limits. People need to learn to honor it!
— Intolerant Kalyan (@Kalyan_Chakraa) May 30, 2016
@chetan_bhagat You are right, but those are not jokes…cheap insult to legends of India
— Indian Citizen (@Indian197400) May 30, 2016
@chetan_bhagat There is a limit of everything. On freedom of expression you can’t take people for granted. People are angry @ bhat bad joke.
— nawab gaurav (@Gauravsharma891) May 31, 2016
@chetan_bhagat how about insulting your parents by a joke… is that ok with u??
Would u take that thing casually too— Ankur bhadauria (@myself_ankur) May 31, 2016
Tanmay Bhat has been in news since Sunday for the Snapchat video he posted on his Facebook age titled ‘Sachin v/s Lata Civil War’ wherein he faceswapped with Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar. The video has kicked up a political storm and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police and Bhartiya Janata Party legislator Ashish Shelar has criticised it too.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
