Hate won, humour lost
Stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui’s social media post, after Bengaluru police cancelled his show on Sunday, was brief and telling. The artiste declared in a mix of Hindustani and English: ‘Nafrat jeet gayee, artist haar gaya! Hate won; I’m done. Injustice.’ The justification the police offered for its action is that the artiste in question is a “controversial figure”. Is he really controversial? And, do controversial figures have rights?
The note of resignation that marks Mr Faruqui’s pithy words, issuing from India’s internationally regarded software hub, is likely to cement this country’s lately acquired reputation for hampered free expression, and for the projection of a cultural outlook that supposedly speaks for this country’s majority religion and — by implication — gets after the minorities. The crude mechanics, which hints at pre-arrangements or at impunity, is now a routine which now causes little surprise, suggesting that the administration and the criminal justice system overlook hate crimes on too frequent a basis.
Look at the case of this particular artist. On January 1 this year, after a show he did in Indore, the organiser of a putative ‘Hindu’ front who is a near relation of a BJP MLA, reportedly lodged a complaint that Mr Faruqui had made fun of Hindu gods and goddesses and had been critical of Union home minister Amit Shah as well (as though the latter is a crime). The young man was arrested and thrown into the lock-up for a month.
Surprisingly, neither the Sessions court nor the Madhya Pradesh High Court thought it fit to grant him bail although the police said it had no evidence of the alleged crime. Eventually the artiste found relief in the Supreme Court.
No evidence of a crime, and yet the judiciary up to the HC level failed to provide relief to a citizen who was locked up on the dubious complaint of an obviously communal outfit. This is something the apex court needs to think about and enquire into the competence or motives of those who are appointed to give reasoned justice based on the law of the land. After the Indore episode, the stand-up comedian has had his shows cancelled in Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodra and Mumbai. In these places certain militant outfits associated with the majoritarian outlook have threatened violence if the artiste were permitted to go ahead. The law and order machinery have not taken the trouble to restrain those threatening trouble, and have punished an artist instead. We did not sign up on a Constitution that offers remedies of this kind.