Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru has received a notice from the city police for allowing a controversial skit that had offensive comments about BR Ambedkar and the Dalit community to be performed in the college. Deccan Herald said that the skit was performed at Mount Carmel College about a month ago. The theatre troupe named 'The Delroys Boys' from Jain University's Centre for Management Studies (CMS) had performed the skit at at least three different venues. The skit triggered widespread criticism and led to the arrest of seven students.
The skit performed at Jain University came to light when a group of students filed an online petition on Jhatkaa.org calling out the "incredibly casteist and insensitive" skit that was performed. The petitioners had approached the organisers citing that the skit normalised caste discrimination in the name of humour, only to be dismissed.
One of the petitioners, who spoke to TNM, had said, "The skit they performed showcased a man from a lowered caste background trying to date an upper-caste woman. The makers turned BR Ambedkar into ‘Beer Ambedkar’ and used several other problematic phrases like ‘Why be Dalit when you can be D-Lit’, to supposedly spark humour."
Under the reel posted on Jhatkaa’s Instagram page featuring some of the controversial snippets of casteist humour from the skit, a few users have argued that towards the end, the skit tries to subvert casteism and that it is not fair to make a judgement solely based on these snippets. Among these was a comment from the handle ‘The Delroys Boys’, which said that the skit was conceived as a satire and that they were disappointed with the petitioners’ attempt at “ill-informed media sensationalism”.
However, ‘The Delroys Boys’ posted an apology on their Instagram page later on February 10, stating that their intention was to bring a social message but that the skit turned out to be unacceptable. They also expressed their regret for the harm caused by their actions. Nine persons, including seven students, the principal, and the programme organiser of Jain University’s Centre for Management Studies were arrested by the Bengaluru police on February 13 over the skit.