Munawar is among the young comedians of India who have founda new stage for their talent in online platforms like YouTube, Netflix, AmazonPrime and others. And their sizeable.
The man has had a difficult past having survived throughGujarat Riots as child, losing mother to suicide, and others. Munawar is atypical young man of India with his work pressures, a team of strong friends,eating out, and working hard to achieve big dreams.
Munawar began his career in Information Technology,expressing his creativity in graphic designing. Still, his skill of humourcould not be contained and he often found himself amusing his colleagues withtimely, strong, punches which led them laughing hard.
Later, and thankfully for the half-a-million followers onhis various social media platforms, he decided to attempt to pursue comedy as aprofession.
He is a successful comedian.
However, it is alleged that in one of his live shows, thecomedian was working on some jokes (allegedly away from the audience) aimed atproducing laughter at the cost of a specific religion.
A powerful man of the same religion allegedly overheard thesame and informed the police, and the police arrested the comedian withouthaving proceeded through the constitutional process of Section 41, whichmandates order from a Magistrate unless specified crimes are believed to havebeen committed.
The comedian’s bail plea was shuttled between Lower Courts,until a Higher Court not only released the comedian, but also issued a notice tothe Police Department as to why was the process not followed.
That’s the story plain and simple, and this author haspresented the same without a mention of religion of any party involved. Why?Because the author does not want to call upon any visceral reactions that mighthave been fed to us, and at the same time, make you think.
The author is mildly amused, and questions the authenticity andthe courage of every creative professional like Munawar and the Tanishqadvertising team which developed an inter-faith marriage of two religions in2020.
Why is one particular religion at the receiving end most ofthe time in their creative production?
A published author on Twitter joked, “Free Speech in thiscountry” showing her displeasure at the government’s high-handed handling ofMunawar. Aggressive handling of the police is a reality, and the departmentneeds to be reprimanded for the same.
But, does the lady on Twitter care to highlight why Munawarand other creative individuals self-censor and aim their guns at a specificreligion only in the softer role.
In closing, let the authorities’ aggressive andunconstitutional handling of Munawar Faruqui also be rallying cry to lookinwards and begin, if not already, to treat each one of equally, to treat eachone’s religion equally whether when bowing in respect or when making anaudience laugh.