Kunal Kamra shares ‘doctored’ clip of child singing to PM Modi in Germany, NCPCR steps in

The NCPCR wrote to Twitter's grievance officer stating that it received a complaint regarding Kamra tweeting a "doctored" video of a minor singing a patriotic song to further his own political agendas.

Comedian Kunal Kamra is back in the news for sharing on Twitter a purported video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with a child in Germany, having replaced a patriotic piece ('Hey Janmabhoomi Bharat') that the boy sang with one on inflation (‘Mehengayi daayan khaaye jaat hain’).

Soon after, there was an uproar from certain corners as well as a barb from the seven-year-old child’s father. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has now sought action against the comedian over the matter and sought immediate removal of the video from social media platforms.

The apex child rights body wrote to Twitter's grievance officer stating that it had received a complaint regarding Kamra tweeting a "doctored" video of a minor singing a patriotic song to further his own political agendas.

"The Commission has taken cognizance of the complaint and is of the view that using minors for propagating political ideologies is a violation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Further, the Commission is apprehensive that using children for such promotional purposes is harmful and detrimental to their mental well-being," it said.

The Commission said the video should be taken off the platform immediately and appropriate action should be taken against the official account of Kamra for posting such content.

The father of the boy also lashed out at Kamra and asked him "keep the poor boy out of your filthy politics and try to work on your poor jokes". Responding to his tweet, Kamra said the joke is not on his son.

Stating that the video is in the public domain, posted by a news organisation, Kamra told him, “The joke is not on your son, while you enjoy your son sing for his motherland to the most popular son, there are songs that he should listen to from people of his country also," Kamra wrote on Twitter.

In another tweet, he said the NCPCR has sought action against him for posting a "meme".

(With inputs from agencies)