News Tamil Nadu

TN Congress Demands Action Against Stand-Up Comic Barath Balaji For His Joke About Jawaharlal Nehru

January 1, 2025
The Commune

On 31 December 2024, K Selvaperunthagai, president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, called on Chief Minister MK Stalin to take action against stand-up comedian Barath Balaji for his controversial joke about former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Balaji’s video, in which he made the joke, went viral on social media.

In a statement, Selvaperunthagai expressed that the comment had deeply offended Congress members and leaders in Tamil Nadu.

“Balaji’s remarks about Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, were highly derogatory and disrespectful. Such behavior cannot be tolerated,” he stated.

Selvaperunthagai reiterated through his official X account, “Under the guise of ‘stand-up comedy’ on social media, Bharat Balaji made highly insulting and derogatory remarks about Bharat Ratna Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. No one can be allowed to speak in such derogatory manner about Pandit Nehru, who was not only the Prime Minister for 17 years but also was called the architect of modern India, widely admired and praised by global leaders. On behalf of the Tamil Nadu Congress, I strongly condemn this.”

“I request the police to take immediate action to arrest Bharat Balaji, who spoke in a disrespectful manner about Pandit Nehru. I appeal the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin, to intervene and take appropriate action, so that the police can act against this individual who made offensive comments about Pandit Nehru,” he added.

Selvaperunthagai emphasized that such harmful speech had caused great distress among Congress members in Tamil Nadu and had severely impacted their mental well-being. “The Cyber Crime Unit of the police must take responsibility to prevent such uncivilized remarks from spreading on social media,” he concluded.

Tiruvallur Congress MP Sasikanth Senthil, who often waxes eloquent on democracy and fascism couldn’t take dark humour of the standup comic saying that freedom of speech should not be an excuse to degrade one of India’s greatest leaders.

Balaji, for his part, later posted on his social media platform X that he had removed the video and issued an unconditional apology.

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