Fifty Years of the Emergency: Delhi CM Says Kunal Kamra Can Perform in Delhi ‘At His Own Risk’
New Delhi: Fifty years after the Emergency, declared by then prime minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using the anniversary to portray the Congress as being a party of suppression of free speech.
But after a twitter poll boomeranged on the BJP’s official handle, where the question asked was if a Congress government of the future would impose Emergency and over two-thirds of those who voted disagreed, comments from Delhi’s chief minister, BJP leader Rekha Gupta have added to the party’s embarrassment.
While speaking in a media event organised by Jansatta, a Hindi daily of The Indian Express group, Gupta said that Kunal Kamra, a stand-up comic and petitioner in the matter against IT rules, could come and perform in Delhi, but “at his own risk”. When pushed by a representative of the newspaper group how a chief minister can say ‘at his own risk’ and not at her assurance, Gupta reluctantly demurred.
Stand-up comic Kunal Kamra has been in the eye of a storm after vandals connected with the ruling Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) attacked the venue of his show in Mumbai and threatened him with consequences for political satire he put up on YouTube.
Attacks on Kamra and the comedy venue, now shut down, have already put Maharashtra in the spotlight for its inability to provide a safe space for commentary, free expression or even satire. The chief minister and top leaders of the BJP and Shiv Sena have not been able to massage the impression that freedom of expression is imperilled in the state and city that houses the Hindi film industry and as before at the forefront of protest protest-literature and poetry, now reeling under an environment that allows lumpen protests to hold sway.
Meanwhile, responding to Gupta, Kamra said, “Spoke like a true ABVP Karyakarta while having the opportunity to speak as a dignified Chief Minister”.
He later also said that Gupta’s comments could be “a tagline for Delhi tourism”
“Come at your own risk” should be a tagline for Delhi Tourism.
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) June 27, 2025
With the BJP now running the Delhi government, and boasts of a ‘triple engine’ government being rife in the capital, the inability of the Delhi chief minister to be able to offer a safe space for the articulation of political satire and comedy, has rung alarm bells.
In March, Kamra released a video of his new show ‘Naya Bharat’. In his performance, Kamra, known for his sharp take on the state of affairs in the country and the government, performed several parody songs.
Shiv Sena members vandalised the comedy club in Mumbai where the video was recorded, but the FIR was registered against Kamra. In the show, taking a dig at PM Narendra Modi, Kamra sang a song titled “Tanashah,” or a dictator. In the other, set to the tune of Dil to Pagal Hai, he targeted Shiv Sena leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde.
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