Bharatiya Janata Party MLA T Raja has slammed comedian Daniel Fernandes for his now-deleted video on Jains. For those unversed, landed himself in controversy for his 'Jains Buy Goats' video. After the video went viral, Daniel received huge backlash for his jokes involving religious sentiments, particularly those concerning the Jain and Muslim communities. In the said video, the comedian had joked about Jains being involved in the meat business. He was slammed for creating chaos between the two communities.
Now, T Raja threatened action against Daniel and warned him to cancel his Hyderabad show will is scheduled to take place on June 29.
A video has surfaced on social media in which T Raja is heard saying, "Jai Jeenendra, Jai Siya Ram. On Bakri Eid, a comedian named Daniel Fernandes cracked bad jokes and mocked the Jain community. I want to tell him to cancel his Banjara Hill show or else our workers will come there and thrash you. You will think 50 times before coming to Telangana."
"I will also request the Police Commissioner to cancel his show. Iska jo haal hum karenge, ithihaas yaad rakhega. Jaise Munawar Faruqui toh yaad hai na... kya hua tha Telangana mein... Vaisa mahool na bane iss liye Daniel ka show cancel kare. Agar vatavaran kharab hua to zimmedaari police ki hogi," T Raja added.
After receiving backlash, Daniel shared a long note on his official Instagram account and issued an apology for hurting religious sentiments of people.
He wrote, "I would like to put all the controversy surrounding my last video to rest. As comedians, we are aware that once in a while something we say may not be received well. It's the nature of the business. It's impossible to make everyone laugh. One of my preferred genres of comedy is topical humor. If there's a headline that I find interesting, I'll have a go at trying to put together a bit around it, and then I move on to the next headline. There is no malice involved in my writing process."
Daniel added, "When this video was initially posted, I got a lot of abusive and threatening messages (they're still pouring in) directed at not just me, but also people I work with. I found that this was at odds with the peaceful nature of the Jain community that we have to come know. Anger and abuse is not a fertile ground for introspection."
The comedian concluded his note by saying, "However, offline, I have had the time to talk to my Jain friends and other members of the community who calmly explained why some of the things I said may have hurt people and I saw value in their insight. Comedy should bring people together, not drive them apart."
