Munawar Faruqui cancels his Mumbai shows after threats from right-wing

Mumbai: Comedian Munawar Faruqui on Wednesday took to his social media to confirm that all his upcoming shows in Mumbai have been cancelled. This comes after the threats by various groups of the Hindu right-wing who demanded the Mumbai police to ban his impending events here, accusing him of hurting their religious sentiments.

According to Bookmyshow, Faruqui’s show titled ‘Dongri to nowhere’ was scheduled to take place from October 29-31 in Mumbai. Taking to Instagram, Faruqui wrote, “Upcoming Mumbai shows 29, 30, 31st Oct 2021 are cancelled. The safety of the audience is what matters most to me. I don’t want my audience to go through what I am experiencing.”

Soon after his announcement, many of his friends and fans started extending their support to the comedian. Many are even hailing him for his decision and hashtags such as #wesupportmunawarfaruqui #westandwithmunawar and #YouAreNotAloneMunawar have been trending on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Comedian Kunal Kamra tweeted, “It’s not that their voices are right/loud or more important to cancel shows. It’s just that your voice is nonexistent in favour of having shows. While it’s very evident who is not in favour of stand up comedy sometimes I wonder if there’s someone in favour of this art-form…”

https://twitter.com/ikartikiyer/status/1453291750244683785

For the unversed, for the past one week, the right-wing groups were running an organised social media campaign under the hashtag #GoBackMunawar to target the comedian. They alleged that his shows are ‘anti-Hindu’.

Yogi Devnath, a Gujarat-based Sadhu Samaj member also took to Twitter and wrote, “I did not allow even a single program of this Anti-Hindu Munawar Faruqui To happen in Gujarat Now Mumbai Also Says #GoBackMunawar.”

It is to be noted that Munawar Faruqui’s September shows in Gujarat too were cancelled after Bajrang Dal protested against the comedian with the allegations of making anti-Hindu jokes during his show.

Earlier this year, Munawar Faruqui was arrested in Indore, MP for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. BJP activists accused him of a derogatory reference to Hindu Gods during one of his shows. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court, more than a month after his arrest.