Comedian Pulkit Mani’s video mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for how he interacts with foreign dignitaries had notched 16 million views on Instagram when it was taken down by the platform in mid-March on the orders of the government. Two days later, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee reposted it with a short introduction.

“If you praise Modi, they [the government] will get your films shown on big screens,” he said in the video, which has since been viewed over 36 million times. “But if you show Modi’s reality, even through comedy, they will not let your videos stay on social media.”

In recent weeks, there has been a proliferation of memes, videos and cartoons poking fun at the prime minister, particularly his overtly personalised approach to foreign policy, even as the government has taken down hundreds of social media posts and disabled the accounts of several users for sharing satirical content against it.

Some of the takedown notices have been issued under the Information Technology Act of 2000. Since they do not always specify reasons and give users time to respond before their post is taken down, legal experts have criticised them for being arbitrary.

The use of humour to target the prime minister isn’t just limited to comedians, cartoonists, content creators and journalists. As the...

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