What Can One Achieve By Threatening An Artist? A Humorless India

Today, a stand-up comedian, singer, and wonderful storyteller, Munawar Faruqui, indicated that he might leave comedy after his show in Bengaluru got called off due to threats from Hindu vigilante groups. Is this what India wants? No. 

The artist, after his show scheduled at Good Shepherd Auditorium, Bengaluru got called off, penned down an Instagram caption, ‘Nafrat jeet gayi, artist haar gaya (hate has won, the artist has lost). I’m done, goodbye. Injustice.’ Indeed, if this is true (we hope and pray it is not), it is a victory of the hate and those who spread hate. This makes me wonder, do we even deserve this person? 

He was challenged at every point by political groups and those whose minds have been filled with hatred. But, he stood strong, showed perseverance, and fought back like a tiger. But, this time, the tiger has been shot right in the heart. We are wishing for his recovery.

He mentioned in the Instagram post that he had the censor certificate of the show. I believe even that is wrong in the first place. Why do you need censor certificates at all? However, for some sellers of hate, a censor certificate was not enough to assure the absence of problematic elements in the show. I wonder if the censor certificate cannot validate the point that he was going to speak nothing wrong, what else can.

We cannot even imagine what he has been through in the past year. This year started with him going to jail for a joke he never even made, followed by rape and death threats to him and his family. But, he taught us all to stand back and be strong. In the last two months, 12 of his shows were cancelled because of such threats to the venue and audience. In fact only a couple of weeks ago, before his Goa show, the local police received complaints about the show, “including a threat that 500 people would set themselves on fire if the event was allowed to take place”.

Every artist is targeted in his rising days. But, in Mr Faruqui’s case, the trolls and haters are using religion as a weapon. Isn’t it scary? This is unfair. How can someone stop an artist to do his work after the court has permitted him to perform? I sometimes wonder, who are these people? How is it happening? How can a big power be big enough to put a full stop to an artist’s career? The career he worked hard for? The career he invested his nights of sleep for? 

“The son of an impoverished driver, Faruqui had worked hard to achieve the Indian middle-class dream. Faruqui had emerged from a set of circumstances that were unique to his religious identity. Munawar Iqbal Faruqui was the face of the Indian dream. An example of how an individual’s economic circumstances and religion need never stand in the way of his ambition and skill. His dream is on hold, but the stand-up comic remains the face of his country—a place where dreams can quickly turn into nightmares,” writes Sonia Faleiro in an article on TIME.

Is this even the real world we are living in? 

I am writing this on Youth Ki Awaaz because this is what the Youth wants to say. Please let him work, it is the basic right. We all deserve to work irrespective of our caste, creed, gender, and colour. My heart aches every time I see his shows getting cancelled but he faces everything with a beautiful smile. Every person who knows him has said he is a soft-hearted person with good intentions.

This is the youth who pays for tickets, this is the youth who works and studies very hard and deserves a moment to sit back, relax and laugh. No one should be powerful enough to cease their right to choose who they want to listen to. 

It is my humble request as an Indian, please let him work because that is what he deserves.