‘BeerBiceps’ controversy: Why is the BJP going after its own cheerleader?
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Ranveer Allahbadia was living the dream.
The podcaster had taken only about five years to notch up 8.2 million followers on YouTube. He was interviewing senior ministers in the Narendra Modi government – collaborations that scrupulously avoided any difficult questions. He was on stage receiving an award from the prime minister for being “disruptor of the year”.
As an upper-class, male youth icon, Allahbadia frequently platformed right-wing figures and made the current dispensation and its Hindutva ideology look good to a wide audience that believes it apolitical.
Then the 31-year-old appeared on a YouTube reality show called India’s Got Latent and made a crude joke involving incest. All hell broke loose.
India’s Got Latent is a pop culture sensation in its own right. It regularly features material that is politically incorrect and crass. But Allahbadia’s joke about the sex life of a contestant’s parents crossed the line – especially for supporters of Hindutva and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Leading the charge of state governments who raced to file first information reports against Allahbadia were Assam and Maharashtra – both states ruled by the BJP. Not just that, the Mumbai cyber crime branch has begun to issue summons to everyone who had ever been featured on the show.
Why did the regime go after its cheerleader? “This should...
