Bengaluru Police on Sunday refused to sanction stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui’s program amid protests by Hindu right-wing outfits. A senior police officer said, “Yes, we have denied permission, he will not perform in any public program today.” The program had hurt the sentiments of Hindus. Munawar Faruqui hints at quitting stand-up comedy after Bengaluru police denied permission for his show. Meanwhile, actress Swara Bhasker has also now made a tweet in support of Faruqui.
Actress Swara Bhasker, who has been in the limelight for her outspoken nature, tweeted in support of Munawar Faruqui on Sunday, writing, “Also.. it’s heartbreaking & shameful how we as a society have allowed bullying and gaslighting to become normalised. I’m sorry Munawwar!”
At the same time, in another tweet the actress wrote, “A project of hate & bigotry will always hate an articulate, rational, educated, charming, talented & funny ‘Other’ who connects beyond identity with a heterogeneous public.. make no mistake Munawwar, Umar Khalid & other such articulate Muslims are a huge threat to Hindutva..”
Let us tell you that after the show was canceled in Bangalore, Munawar Faruqui indicated that he might not perform on stage anymore. He wrote in his Instagram post on Sunday, “Today Bangalore show got canceled (due to threats of vandalism at the venue). We had sold over 600 tickets.” Faruqui told that through this show he was going to collect donations for the organization of late actor Puneeth Rajkumar.
Faruqui further wrote that he was sent to jail for a joke which he never did. He wrote, “From being sent to jail for a joke I didn’t do, to canceling my show, in which there was nothing wrong, this is wrong. The show has received a lot of love from the people. We have canceled 12 shows in the last two months because of threats regarding audience and venue.”
According to media reports, Faruqui had planned to perform ‘Dongri to Nowhere’ on Sunday evening. Vishal Dhuria and Siddharth Das of the Curtains Calls event in New Delhi organized the event in Bangalore. However, various right-wing organizations including Shri Ram Sena and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti had filed complaints against the comedian to the Bengaluru Police Commissioner. He has accused the comedian of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus by allegedly insulting Hindu deities.
Farooqui was arrested this year by the Indore police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and he was in jail for about a month. He was released from Indore Central Jail on February 7 after getting bail from the Supreme Court in the case. During this, many veteran artists of the country also supported him.