NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned Twitter India’s communications director for not submitting an “action taken report” (ATR) against comedian Kunal Kamra for posting a “doctored” video of a boy singing a patriotic song for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Germany visit earlier this month.
In its notice to Twitter Director, the NCPCR said, “The commission had received a complaint through Twitter regarding a video of a minor by the official Twitter account of Kunal Kamra doctored a video of a minor singing a patriotic song to further his own political agendas.”
It said that the commission had taken cognizance of the complaint and is of the view that using minors for propagating political ideologies is a violation of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and the Information Technology.
It is said that the commission is apprehensive that using children for such promotional purposes is harmful and detrimental to their mental well-being.
“A letter in this regard was sent to your good offices on May 5 calling for an ATR in the instant complaint within 7 days of receipt of the letter. However, no such ATR has been yet received by the Commission,” the NCPCR said.
The NCPCR said, “The Commission requires you to appear in person through video conferencing in this matter along with the details of the action taken in this matter at 2.30 pm to explain the reasons for the delay submissions of the report and to inform about the incomplete report submitted with the commission.”
Kamra had shared the alleged purported video of Modi’s interaction in Germany with the child but he replaced the song that the boy sang – ‘Janmabhoomi Bharat’ – with “Mehengayi daayan”, a popular folk song on inflation that featured in the Bollywood film ‘Peepli Live’.
Kamra and the father of the young boy who sang the patriotic song had a face-off on Twitter. Boy’s father slammed the comedian and told him to keep his son out of “filthy politics”.