Munawar Faruqui, who calls himself a comedian, has now hinted for the second time that he is quitting doing comedy shows. He had earlier made such claims earlier this year when he was jailed over allegations of cracking a joke for hurting Hindu sentiments. This had come a year after a clip of his comedy show where he mocked the Godhra carnage victims had gone viral.
In a now-deleted clip, Faruqui was heard cracking jokes on the burning alive of Karsevaks who were returning from Ayodhya. A murderous Muslim mob had set train on fire. Those Karsevaks were killed specifically because they were Hindus.
Now, many have claimed taking offence on jokes is curtailing one’s creative liberty. Let us see this: Would any German get away with cracking a joke on the Holocaust? Where millions of Jews were tortured, killed by the Nazis only because they were Jews. No, right? In parts of the world, Holocaust denial is also a crime. But in India, people like say Arundhati Roy, who are hailed as icons of Indian liberal world, feign ignorance over how the ‘train was set on fire’ and are so clueless that on an international platform they claimed that the Karsevaks in 2002 were returning after ‘demolishing the Babri masjid’.
Hindus being burnt alive is either forgotten or mocked at because that’s what ‘liberals’ in India do: Dehumanise Hindus.
“I was watching The Burning Train on TV. My father came and told me not to watch such nonsense and turned off the channel. I was like, ‘why so?’ He was like this is the video of Godhra kaand. And this is a news channel. I thought it is a movie directed by Amit Shah, produced by RSS… I don’t know…,” he says. Munawar Faruqui then refers to the news about 2002 Godhra carnage as ‘cartoon’.
He also joked that in Godhra kaand, Hindus were burnt alive, “But aren’t they burnt after dying?” he had joked. The 59 karsevaks were burnt alive by a murderous mob because of their religious faith. And that they were returning from Ayodhya after offering seva at Ram Mandir.
Anger against Faruqui has been about that. Especially since on Barkha Dutt’s show he refused to apologise for it.
See, here he blames ‘others’ for ‘spreading’ the joke he cracked. When Barkha Dutt tries to shield him by saying how he has apologised and he’s still targeted, he stops her and corrects her that he has not apologised. And it is fault of other people who are still talking about a joke he cracked on dead Hindus.
And it is truly not because of his religion either. In India, it is the Khans who rule the entertainment industry. Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan have been considered the biggest superstars of the 90s and 2000s. Dilip Kumar, original name Yusuf Khan, has been hailed as the greatest actors of all times. Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan have been the power-writer duo who have given some of the greatest hits of Bollywood. Songs sung by Mohammad Rafi have a different fan base. And then there is musical genius A R Rahman.
In India, cricket is the most followed and loved sport. Mohammad Azharuddin has been the captain of Indian cricket team. Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan – they all have made India proud. And when they were on the receiving end of anger from fans when India lost it was because they were part of team India just like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
When none of them are targeted for their religion, is it not a far stretch of imagination to claim that Faruqui is targeted only because he’s a Muslim?
So a section of people took an offence that someone is mocking their dead, they decide to not let them hold a show. Street power has been doing wonders as we’ve seen. The Government of India was made to repeal three farm laws because a bunch of goons decided to block Delhi border refusing to let the national capital function. There were rapes, murders brutality and riots, but the ‘farmers leaders’ did not back down and, well, the government of India took the knee.
Prime Minister Modi addressed the nation and said the three farm laws will be repealed. Today, on first day of winter session of Parliament, they were repealed in Lok Sabha.
So if street power can get the democratically elected government to take a step back, why should it not be okay for Hindus to not be okay with giving stage time to a man who wants people to laugh on their dead?
