In Modi’s India, comedians can now be jailed for ‘intent’ to tell a joke – as Munawar Faruqi found out

Munawar Faruqi spent 38 days behind bars earlier this year after a Hindu nationalist accused him of ‘intending’ to outrage religious sentiments

The 28-year-old Muslim comedian was eventually granted bail following a Supreme Court intervention. He’s trying to see the funny side of it all

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Munawar Faruqi in a still taken from his YouTube video ‘Munawar Faruqi Leaving Comedy’. Photo: YouTube

Published: 7:00pm, 7 Mar 2021Updated: 7:09pm, 7 Mar 2021

Munawar Faruqi had not even started his set at the Munroe Café in Indore on January 1 when he and another stand-up comic were arrested, alongside two of the event’s organisers, for violating India’s colonial era anti-blasphemy laws.

The 28-year-old Muslim comedian was accused of “intent” to outrage religious sentiments by Aklavya Gaur, a Hindu nationalist activist and son of the city’s mayor.

Moments before Faruqi’s arrest – and only seconds after he took to the stage – Gaur had burst into the venue and began shouting that the show was “cancelled”, according to eyewitnesses.

“Munawar was interrupted even before he could start performing,” said 22-year-old audience member G Jen Agnes K, who has since received death threats for speaking out in support of the comic online. “As soon as he got the spotlight Aklavya Gaur interrupted him.”

Aklavya Gaur, centre, pictured in January last year at a rally in support of India's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, which was criticised for being anti-Muslim. Photo: Instagram

Gaur – whose mother Malini is a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as well as being Indore’s mayor – is himself convenor of Hind Rakshak Sangathan, a non-profit organisation founded in 1998 with the express intention of defending the “Hindu nation, religion and culture”.