Satire silenced: Indian artists face censorship as anti-Modi protests grow

New Delhi, India – Stand-up comic Brijesh Jha posted a parody video on Instagram last week to protest the removal of his name, along with his father’s and sister’s, from a voter list in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.The video, which alleged that India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had disenfranchised millions of voters at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), garnered 1.7 million views after it was posted on September 29.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi detained over election chief protestlist 2 of 4‘Cockroach stir stripped Modi’s carefully confected image’: Arundhati Roylist 3 of 4Mass protests demanding poll chief resignation shake India for third daylist 4 of 4India’s ‘million mutinies’ are puncturing Modi’s aura of invincibilityend of listTwo days later, Meta, the United States-based company that owns Instagram, took the video down, citing “local laws” without giving further explanation.“I felt very helpless that day. I have only one thing in this country – that I can vote. If you take that away from me, then I have nothing left. So I didn’t know what to do. As an art...