India is generally a religious country with a poor sense of humor. So a joke on a god is not acceptable by most. As we all know by now, that cricket is a religion in India and the god of cricket is the master himself, Sachin Tendulkar. So when AIB’s Tanmay Bhat cracked a few jokes on him, the furor which followed, was expected. Now everyone has his own point of view about the incident with some backing Tanmay in the name of freedom of speech while some clearly against him for voicing filth against a loved by all man like Sachin Tendulkar. Clearly there are both the perspectives that can be looked into.
First taking Tanmay Bhat’s view in regard that an individual in our country is free to have his point of view and voice it as well.
He is right about that and the video made by him does not come under purview of any IPC acts and hence is not criminal. So the FIR lodged in Mumbai by some people may be too harsh a step on him. We as Indians love to laugh on others but we need to learn to laugh on ourselves as well. His comments about Sachin do no constitute for any act which are anti national, anti religious or incite any violence of any kind, hence the uproar against him is not justified.
There is a different point of view towards this incident and probably a more sensible one also. Those who have followed cricket since 1989 or even those who have not know Sachin Tendulkar well. The world knows him. He is nothing short of an ambassador from India representing Indian sports. In fact, a place like Germany where cricket is not heard, spoken or seen has witnessed the Tendulkar mania when he was there for an event for one of the sporting good companies along with some well known Soccer players. A huge number of people had gathered there to see him and chanted the ever so green Sachin-Sachin to even outshine the famous footballers.
The soccer stars were seen inquiring about who he was and why he was so popular.
So. a man like Sachin Tendulkar, specially in India touches a lot of hearts. Millions of people have a lot of emotions connected with him. To make fun of him definitely touches a huge population the wrong way. More so, the jokes that Tanmay cracked regarding Sachin in context to Virat Kohli, were in a very bad taste. He surely doesn’t know about Sachin or even Virat for that matter. He does not know that Virat idolizes Sachin.
Tanmay probably was feeding on his own brain when he failed to see that epic moment in the India-Pakistan clash in the recent world T20 where Virat bowed down to Sachin after scoring a match winning fifty. Tanmay might have been sleeping when a few years back Sachin made a comment in an event about Virat, that if there was some one who could break his batting records in the future, it was Virat Kohli.
Tanmay clearly has missed the affection Sachin has for Virat and the respect Virat has for Sachin.
Had he known that, he would not have made this video showing Sachin using cuss words for Virat. Everyone looks for a good laugh but if the viewers are not that mature regarding Humor then even these comedians are not mature enough for a sensible comedy.
A comedy that makes people smile and feel happy and not just desperate attempts to come into some limelight. And Sachin being the gentleman he is has not spoken anything about the incident in the media just like what he did in his cricketing days. But we so do wish that he again does what he did for 24 years – Reply with his bat. Just Kidding. Now that is a good joke!!