Munawar is among the young comedians of India who have found a new stage for their talent in online platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and others. And their sizeable.
The man has had a difficult past having survived through Gujarat Riots as child, losing mother to suicide, and others. Munawar is a typical 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 humour could not be contained and he often found himself amusing his colleagues with timely, strong, punches which led them laughing hard.
Later, and thankfully for the half-a-million followers on his various social media platforms, he decided to attempt to pursue comedy as a profession.
He is a successful comedian.
However, it is alleged that in one of his live shows, the comedian was working on some jokes (allegedly away from the audience) aimed at producing laughter at the cost of a specific religion.
A powerful man of the same religion allegedly overheard the same and informed the police, and the police arrested the comedian without having proceeded through the constitutional process of Section 41, which mandates order from a Magistrate unless specified crimes are believed to have been 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 to the Police Department as to why was the process not followed.
That’s the story plain and simple, and this author has presented 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 might have been fed to us, and at the same time, make you think.
The author is mildly amused, and questions the authenticity and the courage of every creative professional like Munawar and the Tanishq advertising team which developed an inter-faith marriage of two religions in 2020.
Why is one particular religion at the receiving end most of the time in their creative production?
A published author on Twitter joked, “Free Speech in this country” showing her displeasure at the government’s high-handed handling of Munawar. Aggressive handling of the police is a reality, and the department needs to be reprimanded for the same.
But, does the lady on Twitter care to highlight why Munawar and other creative individuals self-censor and aim their guns at a specific religion only in the softer role.
In closing, let the authorities’ aggressive and unconstitutional handling of Munawar Faruqui also be rallying cry to look inwards and begin, if not already, to treat each one of equally, to treat each one’s religion equally whether when bowing in respect or when making an audience laugh.
Also read: “I appreciate sentiments…”, Ratan Tata urges to stop Bharat Ratna campaign