PONDICHERRY, India – From his bachelor pad of exile in a secluded corner of his own country, Indian stand-up comic Kunal Kamra watched the free speech debate in the United States that followed Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension with a sense of deja vu, alarm and lots of envy.
The decision by broadcaster ABC to sideline its late-night host, after criticism from the Trump administration, set off a wave of protests that the country’s consequential traditions of free speech were being eroded. Within a week,
Mr
Kimmel was back on air
, cracking jokes about America’s president once again.
