by Delhi High Court Reinstates Dr Nimo Yadav’s Account While Keeping The Specific Posts Blocked, Which Is The Most Indian Legal Outcome Possible
MUMBAI – The government of India has, over the course of March and April 2026, requested that social media platforms X and Instagram block multiple satirical accounts and posts targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including the account of Prateek Sharma, who operates the popular satire page Dr Nimo Yadav and whose most-cited offending post read: “Elect a clown, expect a circus.” A government counsel, defending the takedown request before a Delhi High Court hearing, described the posts as portraying Modi in “bad taste”. The Delhi High Court agreed to reinstate the account while keeping the specific posts blocked, which is the most precisely Indian legal outcome to a free speech dispute that could have been designed.
Reported for Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. London satirical journalism has been operating under the specific threat of defamation suits from powerful subjects since at least 1695. The current Indian version is faster, has a three-hour deadline, and involves a government lawyer describing a circus metaphor as bad taste, which is itself a circus metaphor.
The Three-Hour Law
India’s current social media takedown law requires platforms to remove flagged content within three hours of a government order. Per Akash Karmakar, a New Delhi technology law specialist quoted by NPR, “the chances of you being able to get a court reprieve to even the most perverse order in a matter of three hours is 0.00%”. The law is, in this assessment, not designed for the speed at which satire is produced. It is designed for the speed at which the government wants satire removed. The speeds are different. The law resolves the difference in the government’s favour.
The Circus Question
The government’s position that “elect a clown, expect a circus” constitutes bad taste is technically accurate in the sense that it is not good taste to describe one’s prime minister as a clown. It is, however, the standard mechanism of political satire, which operates precisely by saying the thing that polite description forbids. The Hindu‘s editorial board has addressed the pattern. The circus, as an institution, has declined to comment.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/ | More: NewsThump
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