Jokes by comedian Samay Raina - that allegedly mock blind people and an infant suffering from SMA, or spinal muscular atrophy, and requiring a Rs 16 lakh injection to survive - have been flagged by the Supreme Court, which declared itself "really disturbed" by the comments.
Mr Raina is already in trouble over fellow comic Ranveer Allahbadia's joke about parents and sex on his 'India's Got Latent' show. And now the court will now hear the matter of these 'jokes' separately.
"We are really disturbed by the allegations. We place such instances on record... implead the concerned persons... suggest measures. Then we will see," Justice Surya Kant said.
The direction came after an intervention application by the Cure SMA Foundation of India, which has also asked the court to consider the exorbitant prices of drugs to treat the condition.
These drugs include Zolgensma, a one-time gene therapy that reportedly costs Rs 16 crore.
The petitioner pointed out that these medicines are beyond a vast majority of India's population and, therefore, crowdsourcing, or public fundraising, such as that which Mr Raina seemed to make fun of, is often the only way for poor people to buy them.
The foundation's principal ask, though, is for the court to direct the centre to include provisions in a proposed regulatory framework to "regulate any derogatory, denigrating, ableist, and/or belittling content against persons with disability, their diseases, and their treatment options..."
Such comments should include, the foundation said, those made by publishers of online curated content and of news and current affairs content, as also by self-styled influencers.
The foundation called for "the highest degree of sensitivity and compassion" in dealing with people suffering from SMA and lamented "this becomes a mammoth task when certain individuals, like Samay Raina, host a comedy show and make insensitive commentaries on persons such with such condition and high cost of drugs and treatment options".
What Did Samay Raina Say?
In his show, Mr Raina spoke about a "charity case" involving a two-month-old baby. He declared "something crazy" had happened, "A two-month-old baby requires a Rs 16 crore injection."
Then addressing a woman in the audience, he said, "Ma'am, you tell me... if you were that mother and one day Rs 16 crore appeared in your bank account... while you had a two-month-old... wouldn't you at least look at your husband once and say...'Hmmm... inflation is rising'."
Mr Raina is also under fire for a 'joke' about a blind person.
He reportedly asked, "Can I ask you a question, my brother... which of your eyes should I look into?" and told another person, "You look at God's eyes..."
Mr Raina's quips have been slammed by the petitioner as one of "numerous instances (on) social media... in which persons with disabilities (and their issues) are objects of derision, pity, or public entertainment". The foundation has pointed out that free speech cannot carry with it "the liberty to speak loosely on such serious issues and dismiss such statements as 'satire'".
