There has been a huge uproar among various sections of Indian society ever since the international star and stand up comic Vir Das published a new video on YouTube entitled “I come from 2 Indias“. This video was shot at the iconic Kennedy Center in Washington DC and from the video, it seemed to be a post-show session where Vir Das read out a poem to the audience.

The poem itself required great courage to recite as it spoke of things that people in India are aware of but afraid to admit. The 7-minute odd video has garnered over 6 lakh views in under 24 hours and has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

While one section of Indian society has wholeheartedly stood up and applauded Vir Das’s efforts to show the country a mirror while highlighting what makes us great, another section of society has taken offence and gone hammer and tongs against it. While many viewers watched the whole video and applauded the fact that we can openly admit where we are going wrong without looking down on our country, many viewers took offence at the fact that Vir Das went abroad and dissed India.

Very ironic as the poem itself talks about how there are 2 India’s within India today.

Vir Das has since stated how his intent was not to hurt anyone’s sentiments but we have to look more objectively at what is going around us. He said in his statement, “People cheer for India with hope, not hate. People clap for India with respect, not malice. You cannot sell tickets, earn applause, or represent great people with negativity, only with pride. I take pride in my country, and I carry that pride across the world. To me, a room full of people anywhere in the world, giving India an ovation is pure love.”

The line in his poem that has garnered the most negative reaction is the one where he speaks of rape culture. He goes on to say in the video, “I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them during the night.” This has offended a large number of people as they felt that he has generalised every Indian in the country and worse still, he spoke of this in the USA and defamed the country.

Another line that has irked a section of society is one where he speaks of the PM CARES fund. He says, “I come from an India where every time we get information, we are always available to care for the PM but we can’t seem to get any information on PM Cares.”

While allegations, FIRs, threats have been flung around with relative ease we have also noticed that the people who have an issue with it are running out of reasons to get offended.

Hindus have taken offence to Vir Das bringing up the worship of Goddesses and his mention of Indians bleeding orange after cricket matches. Fans of the NDA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have taken offence at the reference to PM CARES. Fans of political leaders took offence at the reference to leaders not wearing masks. Conservative older generation took offence at his statement about scoffing sexuality but manage to reach a billion people. Fans of the Congress took offence to the jibe at Rahul Gandhi who cannot stop talking about his dead father but followed his ailing mother.

Almost every line in the poem has offended someone while equally opening our eyes to the kind of truth and reality that we don’t want to acknowledge in public.

In order not to be left out of the whole incident, serial offence taker and self-proclaimed public activist Advocate Jegan Surya Gowda spoke to us from Bengaluru. His reason for taking offence goes beyond the individual lines of the video which he feels has overtaken the real message behind the video.

“The message behind the whole video is being missed by everyone. People are so obsessed with woke culture and cancel culture that they are nitpicking all those individual lines of the video. Come on… I mean this is a poem, a form of artistic expression. You...