On Tuesday, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned Twitter India’s communications director for not taking any action against ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra who had posted a doctored video of a minor boy singing a patriotic song for PM Modi in Germany.
The NCPCR said that the social media company had not yet filed an action taken report against Kamra. On May 5, the child rights body sent a letter to Twitter India seeking action against Kamra for tweeting the purported video. “A letter in this regard was sent to your good offices, calling for an ATR (action taken report) in the instant complaint within seven days or receipt of the letter. However, no such ATR has been yet received by the commission,” the NCPCR said on May 17.
NCPCR has summoned Twitter India’s communications director to appear before it on May 18 for not submitting an action taken report against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra after he had posted a doctored video of a minor singing a patriotic song.
— ANI (@ANI) May 17, 2022
(File Pic) pic.twitter.com/3vG9biWnEx
“It has been 15 days but Twitter is yet to submit an action taken report with us. They haven’t even informed us if the video has been removed. This is not an isolated case with Twitter, but a repeating occurrence. If they want to operate in India, they will have to follow the law of the land,” NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo stated.
The NCPCR had taken the cognizance of the video in which Kamra had edited a song sung by a 7-year-old boy amid his interaction with PM Modi. The boy had sung the song named ‘Hey Janmabhoomi Bharat’ which was replaced by Kamra with lyrics ‘Mehengayi daayan khaaye jaat hain’. The NCPCR had written to the social media company and had sought immediate removal of the video. The organization said that the minor was being allegedly used by the ‘comedian’ to purport his political agenda.
BREAKING: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) acts on stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra’s Twitter post for doctoring video of a child singing during PM Modi’s Germany visit. Asks Twitter to take down post and take action. Police action is also expected. pic.twitter.com/MqZTytWXaO
— Earshot (@EarshotPodcasts) May 5, 2022
It added that Kamra had practiced crime by using minors for propagating political ideologies which is a violation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It also stated that using children for such promotional purposes was harmful and detrimental to their mental well-being.
According to the reports, the father of the boy also lashed out at Kamra for editing the video and asked him to keep his son out of politics. “He is my 7-year-old son, who wanted to sing this song for his beloved Motherland. Though he is still very young certainly he loves his country more than you Mr. Kamra or Kachra whatever you are. Keep the poor boy out of your filthy politics and try to work on your poor jokes”, the father had tweeted.
Reacting to the tweet Kamra argued that the video was in the public domain and posted by a news organization. “The joke is not on your son, while you enjoy your son singing for his motherland to the most popular son, there are songs that he should listen to from people of his country also,” Kamra tweeted.
The NCPCR has demanded strict action against the ‘comedian’ who has violated the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The doctored video has, however, been deleted by Kamra.
