Stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui was on Saturday arrested for alleged indecent remarks against Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a show in Madhya Pradesh's Indore.
Reportedly, a brawl ensued between Hind Rakshak organisation and organisers of the comedy show at a cafe in Indore.
The FIR was filed on the complaint of Hind Rakshak organisation's chief and the son of BJP MLA Malini Gaur, Eklavya Singh Gaur, for allegedly using obscene language against Hindu deities. According to Gaur, he and his associates had gone to watch the show and when they heard the “indecent” comments, they forced the organisers to stop the programme.
Faruqui was then arrested along with four others. Later, a local court rejected their bail pleas and sent them to judicial custody.
As per the complaint, indecent remarks were passed against Hindu gods and goddesses and the Union Home Minister during the show, in-charge of Tukoganj police station Kamlesh Sharma said.
Meanwhile, many celebrities have rallied behind stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui. Sacred Games actress Kubbra Sait, actor and comedian Vir Das, writer and poet Varun Grover, and comedian Rohan Joshi are a few who have written in support of Faruqui.
Kubbra Sait tweeted, "#MunawarFaruqui how insensitive is our leadership to be sentimental towards jokes?"
"You can't stop jokes and laughter. Not because comedians are performing it, but because people need to laugh. Harder you try, the more you're going to be laughed at, now, and by history," wrote Vir Das. "Anyone who has ever tried to control humour, now has a category of jokes devoted to them," he added.
He also posted a screenshot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2017 tweet, when he talked about the importance of humour. “I think we need more satire and humour. Humour brings happiness in our lives. Humour is the best healer,” the PM had said in the tweet.
Das captioned the image: “I’m just going to leave this here.”
Varun Grover shared a video where the comedian is trying to reason with Eklavya Singh Gaur, who had filed the complaint.
“A fellow Indian, a fellow comedian is in jail and got beaten up by a mob because of the words he uttered. Here he’s trying to logically, calmly present his case but our systems now just want to brutally silence every voice. They don’t want to hear, they don’t want to even argue – they want to simply erase every shred of individual thought, every iota of reason. And we the people of the greatest civilization of earth are ok with it,” Grover wrote on Instagram.
Comedian Rohan Joshi also shared Faruqui’s video where he is trying to reason with those offended with his jokes. "Turns out now you can just assault people while they’re doing their job and the cops will take ‘them’ to the police station,” Joshi captioned the video.
Comedian Kaneez Surka and Abish Mathew also shared the clip of Faruqui on Instagram. “Watch this, that’s all and then share it,” Surka wrote. While Mathew added, “Seven minutes of @munawar.faruqui trying to reason but still…”
(With PTI inputs)
