What is it that makes it acceptable for Indians to make fun of the rest of the world (and the rest of the country) but cannot take it as we can give it?

That seems to be the story as far as India is concerned. “A new TV campaign for Pop Chips has featured Ashton Kutcher in many avatars, out of which one is of an Indian producer 'Raj'. With heavily accented language and body scratching virtues, the character didn't go well with the Indo-American community and an online campaign started in protest of the ad,” reported IBNlive.

“One of the initiative takers of this campaign was the writer Anil Dash who wrote, "Hey, startups that are helping @aplusk get richer, can you tell him that racist brownface ads aren't cool?" He was soon joined by others who voiced the same opinion. The anti-Kutcher campaign gained such a high momentum in no time that the makers had to remove the advertisement from YouTube and Facebook,” the IBNlive report says.

For those who haven’t seen the offending ad, here it is:

That ad is offensive? Perhaps Anil Dash and his supporters should see what we do with stereotyping others in India.

Take the case of poor Tanuka San, the protagonist in the Tata Manza commercial. Indian cars are better than Japanese ones and Indians are cleverer than the Japanese, the ad seems to suggest. Funny we haven’t heard howls of protest from Japanese bloggers and activists. Except, of course, they’ve seen it and have a sense of humour.

Here’s the Manza ad, just to remind you.

Japan bashing began, if one remembers correctly, with this one for Coke by Aamir Khan. Japanese tourist (how much more stereotypical can one get) who cannot speak English, walks into a restaurant. Japanese, did I say? It’s far from Japanese, it’s poor hamming.

What about this one, where Aamir Khan and Coke make fun of all of Nepal? That’s spectacular stereotyping if ever there was one. Aamir is a guide, more a Sherpa, there’s no doubt that the butt of the joke is Nepal. We haven’t had Nepalese screaming for Aamir Khan’s head. Maybe they have a sense of humour, too.

And Bengalees could laugh (this was in the pre-Mamata Banerjee era) when Aamir and Coke partnered again. How does one get more racist than this? It’s wonderful stereotyping, down to the Bengali-accented Hindi. Have a great laugh.

What is it that makes it acceptable for Indians to make fun of the rest of the world (and the rest of the country) but cannot take it as we can give it?

Pop Chips obviously doesn’t know India and advertising in India. If they did, they wouldn’t have pulled the ad. They would have told protesters to take a hike – maybe with Aamir Khan as a guide.