Gujarat born comedian, not much famous but he has his own wounds to express hilariously. Munawar Faruqui has chosen a well-negotiated path to express the anger, hate, and pain that he had gone through due to riots. He has made fun of Lord Rama and Sita in one of his shows, trust me I am a solemn Hindu and Lord Rama worshipper, my father named me Vaidehi just because we have our own temple of Rama but I was not hurt by his comedy. The reason I was laughing at the Hindi song that he mentioned, yes, the songwriter should be equally guilty. Those who appreciated his comedy were called Hindu-hating liberals. Somewhere by doing Hindu-Muslim hate-mongering, we have forgotten to take things jokily. Well, I also agree that he should have equally made fun of Prophet Mohamad too, as there are many laughable stories on him, but this time he would not have beaten but beheaded.
In a very pre-planned strategy, he was invited to Madhya Pradesh. The attackers precisely booked the tickets for his show. Rest you all know what happened. The question is that, will he stop making jokes which end up hurting the fragile sentiments of so many people? To be honest, he cracks jokes on Burkha, Tripple Talaq, and on other things related to Islam as well. I’ve been watching his videos for months and haven’t seen him abusing Hindu Deities. He cracks jokes I admit but jokes are not much offensive unless you follow religious politics having fragile sentiments. Moreover, he puts a disclaimer stating “This video has occasional use of strong language”. If you’re this fragile then why do you watch his jokes? Why do you attend his standup shows? Simply Ignore. You should know eighty percent of his viewers are Hindu, hardly any Muslin goes to watch his comedy. Who should be blamed? Is this an attack on the personal liberty of an Indian citizen in the name of religion? As he is vocal against the central government. Hence, some local thug aka workers of a particular political party first attended his show and then created a scene for cracking jokes in some of his old shows.
In Madhya Pradesh’s show, he did not make any offensive comments. The irony is that the people supporting his arrest are the same people who appreciated and supported France President on the hold of Blasphemy but when it comes to their religion, they suddenly became fragile. Hindus are actually “ToLeRaNt” until someone is cracking jokes on their religion. These are the same people who make fun of Islam and Prophet Mohammad, if you recollect the Bangalore incident, some of the BJP workers made derogatory remarks of Islam and incited riots. But we were with rioters because he gave us sadist pleasure by attacking our self-assumed religious rival. Section 295A in The Indian Penal Code (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) should be scratched out and everyone should get the freedom of speech.
Well, Munawar handled the situation gracefully, apologized for the video he made four years back. The complaint was filed by the BJP leader’s son in law. His religion was referred to various times. If this were only about Hindu Gods, why bring up his religion? If this has nothing to do with his religion, why is Charlie Hebdo brought up in every discussion related to this case? Why did the goon falsely accuse Muslims of not being tolerant? These arguments weren’t required if this had nothing to do with Munawar’s religion. The dictators have always been afraid of comedians. It is like a Nazi-state where people will dig your past and attack you years later. As a result, he has become (in)famous.
Farooqui had to delete his Twitter account. The same people applauding France for their tough stand on Freedom of Speech are suppressing speech in their own nation. The reason, in both cases, the target is from the Muslim community. We have cases like Charlie Hebdo every month in India. Right-wing supported Charlie Hebdo but not the victims of lynching. They were garlanded and got the first-row seat in the political rally. We should learn to respect artists. If you want to use regressive laws to harass someone, don’t stop the show. You have no right to disrupt a show. A counter-complaint should be filed against the goons for disruption and not letting a person carry on its service. No one gives a damn about your selective sentiments. If you have a problem, don’t watch his show. If you can’t tolerate people like him, get stronger. You are not any better than people who call out to lynch people or kill people for hurting religious sentiments. If you all want to continue doing this, then stop talking about Arab Nations, Pakistan. You are the one pushing for the same ideology in your own country. As a common man of India who is not a member of the secular-liberal gang, I demand equal punishment and condemnation for all such incidences by one and all.
