Hours after Indians began to laugh as they watched comic artist Kunal Kamra’s new video, Naya Bharat, released on March 23, the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, Washington DC, hosted its annual ceremony to bestow the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour on Conan O’Brien. Although not known for his political persona, O’Brien said in his acceptance speech, “First and foremost, Twain hated bullies. He punched up, not down. And he deeply, deeply empathised with the weak.” O’Brien’s allusion to Trump as a bully was unmissable, prompting the audience to guffaw—and applaud.

India should institute an award for the Most Courageous Humour of the Year, for, unlike in the United States, political satirists here invite mobs, troll armies and paranoid governments, all keen, and often acting in tandem, to silence them—and even toss them into prison. Think Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav. Many comedians have chosen, understandably, to take out the bite from their satire on the more sinister of India’s bullies, and even refrain from mentioning them.