The Supreme Court's scrutiny of a joke made by podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia on Samay Raina's show has sparked debate on legal priorities.
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00:00As the Supreme Court
00:03takes a very dark view
00:06on podcaster Ranveer Alabadia
00:09for a joke that he cracked
00:12on YouTuber Samai Raina's show.
00:15Friends, today we must ask ourselves
00:18what does it say about India's legal priorities
00:21when the police forces in Maharashtra, Assam
00:24and Rajasthan are hunting down a content creator
00:27as though he were a fugitive of the highest order?
00:30What does it say about the state of our judiciary
00:33when the Supreme Court, burdened with over 5 crore
00:36pending cases, including 83,000 of its own
00:39finds the time to take offence at a filthy
00:42joke on an online comedy show?
00:45Let me be clear, this is not about endorsing
00:48tasteless humour. Ranveer Alabadia's
00:51remarks made on Samai Raina's show India's Got Latent
00:54show, known for its shock and cringe comedy
00:57laced with disgusting expletives, were not
01:00to anyone's liking. They were crude, they were inappropriate
01:03and they were, in many ways, offensive.
01:06But should bad comedy, however distasteful, become
01:09a matter of national policing?
01:12Should it justify a multi-state police pursuit
01:15that treats a podcaster like a hardened criminal?
01:18Or is there something more at play here?
01:22I am genuinely asking. It's not a loaded question.
01:25It is hard to ignore the disturbing pattern
01:28of selective outrage and selective law enforcement.
01:31This is not the first time Samai Raina's
01:34show has featured humour that pushes boundaries of
01:37so-called decency. So why, out of all
01:40the content that has already aired, has this
01:43particular clip of Ranveer making
01:46a horrible, disgusting joke triggered the highest
01:49levels of legal scrutiny in the country?
01:52The machinery of the state does not simply
01:55lurch into motion without reason.
01:58Of course, one can explain it away, given Ranveer
02:01Alabadia's enormous reach and popularity, as also
02:04Samai Raina's, they are some of the most watched
02:07content creators in the country. But they are
02:10hardly the only Indian influencers or comics
02:13using obscene language or saying shocking things
02:17to their audiences. It seems to many that this
02:20incident is being used as a pretext, a
02:23convenient test case to set a precedent for
02:26something far bigger. Perhaps an attempt to
02:29normalise state intervention in online content to
02:32ease the way for broader censorship, whether on
02:35YouTube or on OTT. And how do you sell
02:38censorship to the public? By choosing a case
02:41that nobody instinctively wants to defend. By
02:44targeting a piece of content that is so crude,
02:47so distasteful, that no one will stand up for
02:50its right to exist. The tactic is simple.
02:53First come for the voices that few will miss.
02:56Then once the precedent is set, it becomes easier
02:59to extend these powers to more voices, to all
03:02voices that inconvenience those in power.
03:06YouTube is filled with obscene jokes,
03:09profanity-laced rants, and even violent speech.
03:12In English, in Indian languages, in Bhojpuri,
03:15in Hindi, in Tamil, in Kannada, no matter what,
03:18there's a whole ocean of obscene content out
03:21there that nobody seems to have a problem with.
03:24Content that should shock the conscience of any
03:27viewer is easily accessible, often garnering
03:30millions of views without any quote-unquote
03:33consequence. And yet, amidst this vast ocean
03:36of offensive material, a relatively puerile
03:40joke has somehow managed to trigger the full
03:43might of the state. The sudden and
03:46disproportionate reaction demands scrutiny.
03:49Why now, and why this? If the concern is truly
03:52obscenity, then where has this moral outrage
03:55been hiding? Why does enforcement appear so
03:58selective, so targeted? The reality is,
04:01obscenity is not the real issue here.
04:04I think the real issue here is the
04:07control. This case is not about
04:10protecting public decency alone. It is about
04:13paving the way, perhaps, for state
04:16intervention in digital spaces. It is about
04:20setting a precedent that makes censorship more
04:23palatable by choosing a test case that is easy to
04:26vilify. This is not about one joke.
04:29This is about the broader principle of freedom of
04:32expression. It is about whether we as a
04:35country should be a guardian of freedom, even
04:38when it comes to protecting speech we
04:41personally dislike. The Supreme Court, which
04:44should be a guardian of rights, must ask itself
04:47whether it wishes to be regarded as a defender
04:50of constitutional values or as an enabler of
04:53state censorship. Law enforcement must
04:56refocus its priorities on genuine threats to
04:59public safety and justice rather than expending
05:03its time on a joke. Parliament must
05:06prioritise the millions of cases waiting for
05:09justice rather than acting as an arbiter of
05:12taste on YouTube. We, the people,
05:15viewer, must remain vigilant against the
05:18steady creeping in of censorship, however it is
05:21packaged, however it is sold. Some
05:24self-righteous members of Parliament have
05:27embarked on a crusade, using priceless
05:30resources, such as the BBC, the BBC, the
05:33BBC. I could fill a book with the
05:36things our Parliamentary time should rather be
05:39spent on, but who am I? I honestly don't think
05:43this is about Ranbir Alabadia. I must
05:46confess, I have never even seen his podcast, so
05:49I'm probably a small minority. I also think
05:52his joke betrays the juvenile desperation of a
05:55wannabe whose singular motivator is attention
05:58and attention. I'm not saying that we should
06:01give people the right to be offended and raise
06:04the issue in court if they must, but I'm
06:07wondering, viewer, don't our state authorities
06:10have more pressing issues to attend to, no
06:13matter what you think of beer, biceps or
06:16anybody around him and his BS? Just think
06:19about this for a moment.