Gujarat born comedian Munawar Faruqui today indicated that he may bid farewell to comedy or live shows after at least 12 of his shows got cancelled at the ninth hour.
At least a dozen of his shows have been cancelled following threat of venue vandalism by fringe right wing groups. Munawar, who is a Gujarati was also looking forward to two shows in Gujarat, which of course could not be materialised.
The latest show to be cancelled was scheduled today in Bengaluru, where the police asked the organisers to call it off citing possible law and order problems.
Earlier, Munavar spent a month in a Madhya Pradesh jail on charges of “insulting Hindu gods and goddesses” during one of his comedy shows. Interestingly, the show had not even take place and he was arrested for the above mentioned charges.
In today’s Instagram post after his Bengaluru show was cancelled, Munavar wrote,”Nafrat jeet gayi, artist hear gaya (hate has won, artist has lost). I’m done, goodbye.
Some of his fans requested him not to stop doing shows.
Mohan Gowda of the Hindu Jagran Samiti in Bengaluru had threatened that also they would not allow the show to be held following which Bengaluru police asked Munavar to cancel the show.
In his Instagram post, Munavar said they had sold over 600 tickets for the Bengaluru event but the show has been cancelled due to “threats of vandalism”.
“Aaj Bangalore show cancel ho gaya (under the threats of venue vandalism). We sold 600+ tickets. Month back my team called late Puneeth Rajkumar sir organisation for charity which we will be going to generate from this show in Bangalore. We agreed to not sell the show on the name of charity as suggested by the noble organisation,” Munavar wrote.
“Putting me in jail for the joke I never did to cancelling my shows, which has nothing problematic in it. This is unfair. This show has gained so much love from people in India irrespective of their religion. This is unfair. We do have censor certificate of the show and it’s clearly nothing problematic in the show. We called off 12 shows in the last two months because of threats to venue and audience,” the comedian said in the long Instagram post.
“…I think this is the end. My name is Munawar Faruqui and that’s been my time. You guys were wonderful audience. Goodbye, I’m done,” he wrote.
Munavar was born in Junagadh in Gujarat in 1992. When he was 10, he was affected by Gujarat riots. He had moved to Dongri in Mumbai with his father and three sisters after the Gujarat riots. He discovered his sense of comedy while working in a utensil factory in Dongri.
