NEW DELHI: Sanjay Raut on Tuesday backed Kunal Kamra to the hilt as the comic continues to face severe backlash for indirectly calling Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde a “gaddar” (traitor) at a show in Mumbai.
Raut said Kamra wouldn’t bow down before anyone and that both share the same DNA.
“I know Kamra. We share the same DNA. He is a fighter,” Raut told news agency PTI. “He won’t apologise. If you have to act against him, you have to take recourse to lawful steps,” he said.
Kamra courted a massive controversy with his remark, which was on the backdrop of the Shinde-led 2022 rebellion that led to the fall of Uddhav Thackeray’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra.
During his stand-up show, Kamra performed a parody of a popular Hindi song from “Dil Toh Pagal Hai,” referring to Shinde as a “gaddar”.
He also made jokes about recent political developments in Maharashtra, including party splits within Shiv Sena and NCP. “Meri nazar se tum dekho to gaddar nazar wo aaye. Haaye,” Kunal Kamra said during his show.
“Shiv Sena first came out of the BJP, then Shiv Sena came out of Shiv Sena. NCP came out of NCP, they gave nine buttons to one voter… everyone got confused,” he added.
Reacting to Raut’s remark, Maharashtra’s junior home minister Yogesh Kadam took a jibe, saying: “DNA of Kamra and Raut could be the same. He (Kamra) is mad and so is this person (Raut).”
BJP MLC Parinay Phuke claimed that the Congress “or other parties” are supporting Kamra. Asked about Raut’s DNA comment, Phuke said, “Their DNA must be the same because the DNA of scoundrels is the same.”
Earlier on Monday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam alleged that rival Uddhav Sena funded the comic’s show in a Mumbai studio, where the remark was made. Calling Kamra’s remark against Shinde a “low-level comment”, Nirupam claimed money for the show came from Matoshree, the official residence of Uddhav Thackeray.
The Shiv Sena leader also issued a sharp warning to Kamra, saying “people are searching for him, but we have come to know that he is not in Mumbai and has probably fled from here. We will not leave him until he apologises”.
After Kamra released the video, Shiv Sena workers on Sunday vandalised a hotel in Mumbai’s Khar area. The vandals ransacked Hotel Unicontinental in Khar area where the show was shot.
