Sharp Edge: Outrage over Ranveer Allahbadia is calculated to lay the ground for digital media censorship

Ranveer Allahbadia, who calls himself The Beer Biceps Guy, has become public enemy number one for Right-wing (or Hindutva-supporting) social media activists and is the target of various police forces (mostly from BJP-ruled states) for comments made on an odious YouTube show called India’s Got Latent. There are many ironies to this. For a start, Beer Biceps has been an enthusiastic bootlicker of this government, prostrating himself before powerful figures while conducting “interviews” (using the term in its loosest sense) with them. The very Right wing these guys so proudly identified with suddenly kicked them in the face—even as they were licking its toes. Not only was there a huge social media campaign against them, but they now face prosecution and persecution. No Indian citizen should have the full weight of the state used against them over a joke, no matter how crass or distasteful. You don’t have to like these guys—let alone laugh at their jokes—to stand up for their rights as citizens.