Bengaluru: Naidu, TDP supporters disrupt standup show over 2-year-old joke

Hyderabad: Angry supporters of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) disrupted a show of standup comidian Sarat Uday in Bengaluru and verbally abused the Hyderabad-based artist in the middle of his performance over jokes cracked on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over two years ago. Despite Sarat apologising earlier, the miscreants still forced him to issue another apology in front of the audience.

The incident took place at Koramangala in Bengaluru on Saturday, April 25, around 7 pm and the entire incident was captured in a video. According to Sarat, the miscreants disrupted his show almost immediately after he began.

This is the third incident to standup comedians being threatened or arrested for jokes on politicians from the ruling parties in Andhra Pradesh. Prior to this, comedians Anudeep Katikala and Rafiq Muhammed were booked and arrested by the AP Police for similar jokes.

While Anudeep was picked up by the police from Prayagraj and taken to Kakinada, Rafiq was arrested from his house in Visakhapatnam and taken to Machlipatnam where the case was booked against him.

In the incident on Saturday, a man from the audience first arrived and said, “I’m your fan, you do comedy very well. But in one show, you insulted our leader.” Soon, he was joined by two more people, who began to threaten Sarat, following which a group of five or six people also walked in and ganged up on the comedian. Sarat told them that he had already apologised for those jokes, but the TDP supporters demanded a new apology and started to abuse him verbally.

Sarat issued “final warning”

Sarat then apologised again, addressing Naidu, his son and current IT Minister Nara Lokesh. “How dare you joke about Naxalites’ assassination attempt on Chandrababu Naidu?” one of the miscreants told Sarat, while another threatened him, saying, “If you make such a mistake one more time, mark my words.”

They also tried to force him to say “Jai TDP, Jai Lokesh Anna, Jai Chandrababu Naidu,” but Sarat refused, stating that he also joked about the opposition YSR Congress Party as well. They issued him a “final warning,” and then left.

When contacted, Sarat told Siasat.com that the issue had already been settled since he had apologised for his jokes on Naidu earlier.

He added that by the time the police arrived, the miscreants had left the venue.