Mumbai, April 10 Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut defended stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Friday, who has been served a notice for violating parliamentary privilege over his satirical song about Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, saying it was satire, not blasphemy.
Raut was responding to a question about Kamra appearing before the privilege committee of the Maharashtra legislature.
"Kunal Kamra is a stand-up comedian who writes good scripts, songs, and satires. He performed satire ('vidambana'), not blasphemy ('vitambana')", Raut said.
Kamra appeared before the panel on Thursday and stated that he felt no remorse over his remarks targeting Shinde, and would not apologize.
Raut said it is not right to create tension over such an issue and waste the resources of the privilege committee.
He further said that Kamra composed a satirical song similar to those by the prominent poet, writer, and journalist Pralhad Keshav Atre, fondly known as Acharya Atre.
During a performance in Mumbai last year, Kamra had used a modified version of a Hindi song from the movie 'Dil To Pagal Hai' to describe the turmoil in the Shiv Sena, then led by Uddhav Thackeray.
Shinde rebelled against Thackeray's leadership in June 2022, leading to a split in the Shiv Sena and the collapse of the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
Earlier, chairman of the privileges committee Prasad Lad said that a complaint had been filed by Pravin Darekar, a BJP member of the Legislative Council, against Kamra.
