Recently, Ranveer Allahbadia, aka BeerBiceps, arguably the current number one podcaster in India, appeared on Samay Raina’s show “India’s Got Latent”.
At one point, his intrusive thoughts went so out of control that the man ended up asking, “Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day or join them to finish it once and for all?” A healthy, functioning brain would freeze for a moment, but the crowd seated there burst out laughing.
Possibly, the so-called elites, who also claim to be enlightened, would have taken it to be a time traveller joke.
Ranveer’s co-panellist on the show was Apoorva Makhija. The so-called influencer was recently the star of the reels for desiring an ideal partner who does not beat women and respects her. Fine, accepted, and that is how every girl should choose her partner. But do we know whether she respects women or not?
In the show, she herself went on to make a few crass jokes about women’s body parts. She was asked by one of the participants where her private parts do not get any sensation. Instead of getting the man arrested, she went on to mock the mother of the contestant. In another clip, she also made jokes about the male reproductive organ.
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After the clips went viral on the Internet, Samay Raina and BeerBiceps were heavily criticised. Both left- and right-wing groups seemed united here, and even Gaurav Taneja, generally a proponent of free speech, did not seem to support such ‘jokes’.
But there are arguments against such criticism too. For instance – “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it”, “switch to other channels”, “live and let live”, and the ultimate philosophical argument “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” by Voltaire.
Let us pick the best of them and see whether Voltaire stands correct here or not. In the colonialism-affected world order, societies treat free speech as essential for establishing truth and speaking it to power. This was necessary since the history of colonialism is nothing but a story of perpetrators vs sufferers and the later needed voice.
This context is out of the frame now. The fact that speech is used to establish truth and morality has been surreptitiously replaced by the notion that free speech means uttering anything and getting away with it.
In essence, a news reporter giving a factually incorrect report, a news anchor twisting the religion of a stone pelter, and India’s biggest podcaster hurling abuses against parents – the most revered humans after Bhagwan – can be given free hand in the name of free speech.
Before this video, Allahbadia was busy portraying himself as some sort of know-it-all spiritual person. His educative videos on Yoga, Siddhi, different stages of meditation, tantra vidya, mantras, dressing and grooming tips for men, bodybuilding tips, and tips for a happy life in love or after a breakup have been seen millions of times.
The charade of fakeness went undetected by the government and the social media teams of shrewd politicians too. Social media teams of Milind Deora, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari and even Dr S. Jaishankar picked him for the podcast.
Every second celebrity, be it a politician, film star, businessperson, startup founder, cricketer, or social media influencer, appeared on the show of a man who seems to have no idea how to respect his mother. To add insult to injury, his mother also appeared on the show for a podcast.
In fact, one of the brandings of Allahbadia is that he shares a beautiful bond with his mother. We don’t know how she is feeling now. Not good for sure, and it is definitely not the fault of her upbringing.
She sent her son to study in expensive schools and colleges so that he could learn the fine prints of how society works and how he can manoeuvre his way towards a respectful life.
One of the lessons we are taught in these institutions is thinking out of the box. This spontaneity provides shock value to the audience and hence keeps them hooked on any piece of content. That is the one big lesson every media professional understands.
So when a writer shows that slapping someone is not a physical act, but it breaks the soul to the core, the audience feels it. Similarly, when one compares the total recorded size of WAQF land to the area of Pakistan, the audience gets to know the consequences of appeasement and secularism.
With the roast culture, the shock value is now reduced to making jokes about human reproductive organs, which are considered sacred in our traditions. The joke may be on us as the audience, but the responsibility is on us too. Free speech should be used as a tool for victims to air their opposition against the most powerful people in the world.
So who is the victim here? Samay Raina, Apoorva Makhija or Ranveer Allahbadia? None of them. They are, in fact, one of the most privileged sections of society.
It is time to protect the essence of free speech and not respect those who use it for cheap money-making. It is time to remember the lessons of Lord Ganesh who treated parents as the world and not a source of worldly pleasures like money.
