Mainstream media in India and elsewhere has for long relinquished its responsibility of presenting the news in an unbiased manner and instead wielding its influence to shape narratives that suit its agenda, which at times, involves shielding people who belong to their ideological spectrum.

Grave misconduct and serious allegations against a person are either downplayed or swept under the rug by supportive media organisations who are more engrossed in salvaging the person than presenting the truth to their patrons.

The conduct of several mainstream media organisations over the withdrawal of Kotak Group’s ad campaign featuring controversial ‘comedian’ Tanmay Bhat has been problematic. Instead of reporting the truth, many organisations have sought to draw a veil over the reason for the withdrawal by resorting to obfuscation.

For instance, a report published in The Hindustan Times about the Kotak Group’s decision to discontinue the ad campaign with Tanmay Bhat had an ambiguous headline, almost painting the ‘comedian’ as a victim of social media cancel culture. The headline read “Kotak Mahindra Bank withdraws Tanmay Bhat advt after decade-old tweets stir row”, which gave the impression that Tanmay Bhat was a victim in the entire saga and that his advertisement was removed after “decades-old tweets” triggered a controversy. 

The article mentions that Tanmay Bhat’s ad suffered an online backlash for his past tweets on Ganesha. While his disparaging tweets on Hindu Gods were indeed despicable, his tweets on child porn and child rape, which are far more serious matters and warranted greater attention, were summarily brushed aside. 

Though the article does include reactions from Twitter users who were scandalised to watch the ‘comedian’ who made jokes on child rape legitimised by a reputable business group, the article conspicuously downplayed the matter.

Similarly, a report on the same topic by Afaqs had no mention of the paedophilic content uploaded by Bhat in the past. The report said Kotak pulled down the ad campaign because his old tweets on Lord Ganesh had the social media users riled up.

The deliberate attempt to highlight “decades-old tweets” is a psychological attempt by media organisations to extenuate Tanmay’s culpability and paint his critics as unjust and unfair. By pointing out that Tanmay’s tweets were “decades-old”, the MSM organisations try to imply that those outraging against Kotak for enlisting the ‘comedian’ for its ad campaign are snowflakes, predisposed to taking offence at the minutest of the transgressions.

The Indian Express too published a report that glossed over the more problematic antecedents of Tanmay Bhat and highlighted his offensive tweets against Lord Ganesha as a cover for his paedophilic tweets. The article said the Kotak Bank withdrew its campaign after an old tweet on Ganesha resurfaced. 

The Mint also had a similar stand on the issue, with its article claiming that the Kotak Group had pulled down its ad featuring Tanmay Bhat after outrage at his old tweet on Ganesha.

It is patently clear that ignorance is not the reason why the media organisations have not included the ‘child rape jokes’ as the cause of Kotak’s withdrawal of the advertisement, for that would stigmatise the ‘comedian’ who remains a darling of the liberal firmament as evidenced by propagandist Kunal Kamra’s sympathising tweet for Bhat.

Expressing his disappointment on Kotak’s withdrawal of the ad, Kamra tweeted: “I can’t believe no comedians are siding with victim Tanmay Bhatt he has faced so many atrocities in life & still counting. Sad day for the comedy world over. Shame on the Indian comedy scene.” However, after being called out for supporting a controversial ‘comedian’ who had made child rape jokes, Kunal Kamra went into damage control mode, stating that his tweet was meant as sarcasm.

Self-described comedians and fact-checkers often resort to such means where they lean on ‘sarcasm’ when caught on the wrong foot. Kamra, too, appeared to manage the backlash by claiming that his tweet lauding the controversial AIB ‘comedian’ known for his vulgar and derogatory jokes was sarcastic.

By concealing his far more problematic paedophilic tweets, the media organisations and Bhat’s supporters are banking on the evanescent public memory to scrub clean the image of one of their own and paint him as a martyr of online fury, which is why the media outlets give a pass to his controversial ‘jokes’ and focus on his lesser offensive comments, believing that it would enable them to bring him out of the woodwork and to greater social acceptability.

Kotak Group withdraws its ad campaign featuring Tanmay Bhat

On February 12, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s digital banking handle Kotak811 withdrew the campaign featuring controversial former AIB comedian Tanmay Bhat after it received a backlash on social media. In a tweet, Kotak811 said, “We at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. do not support or endorse the views of actors made in their personal capacity that harm or offend any individual or group. We have withdrawn the campaign.” The ad campaign also featured comedian Samay Raina.

While the mainstream media organisation would have us believe that his advertisement was pulled down for his offensive tweets against Ganesha, it is notable to mention that Bhat has attracted online wrath for his child rape ‘jokes’ and pedophilic content. Tanmay Bhat has a history of making derogatory and problematic tweets. He not only insulted legendary singer Late Lata Mangeshkar at one point but also made casual jokes about child sexual exploitation.

His group AIB was infamous for making controversial jokes, and it was closed down after one of its members was accused of sexual harassment. Notably, the other members, including Bhat, were aware of the accusations before they were made public, but they decided not to act strictly upon them. The accusations were made public in the wake of the MeToo movement that swept the country in 2018.