Political analyst Tehseen Poonawala on India’s Got Latent row: ‘If you don’t like dark humor…’

Political analyst Tehseen Poonawala said that bad jokes shouldn't lead to violence, amid a probe into Ranveer Allahbadia's remarks on ‘India’s got latent'.

As the row around podcaster and YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia’s remarks on comedian Samay Raina’s show ‘India’s Got Latent’ escalates, with people calling him out for his crass remarks, another internet personality, Tehseen Poonawala, who also refers to himself as a ‘political analyst’, has come in defence of the YouTube show, calling the outrage an attack on freedom of speech.

Ranveer Allahbadia with Samay Raina on India's Got Latent.

Appearing on Mirror Now as a guest, Tehseen Poonawala said that while the Parliament is united on a “social media” issue, “a convicted rapist is out every time there’s an election in this country. No one in the Parliament chooses to react on it.”

“Cracking a bad joke is just that, a bad joke, and the punishment to it is self-censorship, self-regulation, that isn’t violence. Ranveer cracked a bad joke, it may have offended someone’s sensibilities but it didn’t cause violence,” said Poonawala.

“There are a lot of ways to prevent your child from seeing this. This was a ticketed show for adults only, for a subscriber base. It was a show that was marketed like dark humor. If you don’t like dark humor, please shut up and get out, don’t watch it. I think it’s filth, I didn’t want to watch it but you can’t impose conditions on a ticketed show, which is subscriber based, which is adult only, which says it is a show for dark humor,” he added.

Death threats to Ranveer Allahbadia

Tehseen Poonawala’s remarks come after Ranveer Allahbadia, who is facing heat on social media and police cases alike for his remarks, said that he is receiving death threats, however, he is not running away and cooperating with investigation agencies.

Accepting his remarks as “disrespectful” and “insensitive”, Allahbadia extended an apology for the second time over his comments, saying that he is "genuinely sorry”. “I am watching death threats pour in from people saying they want to kill me and hurt my family. People have invaded my mother’s clinic posing as patients. I am feeling scared and I don’t know what to do,” he said in a statement put out on his social media.

Ranveer Allahbadia, along with comedian Samay Raina, content creator Apoorva Mukhija and others present on the panel of show are facing multiple cases in Mumbai and in Assam over the remarks made in the show. Apoorva Mukhija and some others have recorded their statements with the police probing the matter. A team of Guwahati police is also in Mumbai for investigation.

Samay Raina removed all episodes of India's Got Latent from his YouTube channel following the controversy.