By Mitali Srivastava
India – the world’s largest democracy is suffering from an ominous symptom of “hurting religious sentiments”. Every now and then, the country awakens to incidents of religious sentiments of some of the other community getting hurt. Interestingly, the surge in the number of such incidents has been noticeably higher in the past few years.
Whether it is the case of an FIR being filed against the makers of web-series Taandav or the arrest of comedian Munawar Faruqui in Indore – we are just one month into the new year and the country’s social media was once again abuzz with the hot debate. The arrest of comedian Munawar Farooqui in anticipation of a ‘joke that he was about to crack’ which ‘allegedly could have hurt religious sentiments’ is a perfect example that demonstrates the graveness of the situation and its ramifications. It is also a mockery of the world’s largest democracy and its citizens’ fundamental right of freedom of speech!
On January 1, stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui was scheduled to perform at Café Monroe in Indore on the occasion of New Year. Before the comedian could even begin his act, Eklavya Singh Gaur (son of BJP’s MLA from Indore-4 – Malini Gaur) took over the stage, snatched his mic, and began addressing the audience: “Ye Munawar Farooqui hai,ye shows karta hai, humare devi devtaon ka mazaq udata hai aur tum log paisa deke iska show dekhne aate ho, tumhe sharam nahi aati?” He hurled: “Humare religious sentiments hurt huye hai…Godhra kand per joke kiya…Humare devi devta ka mazak udaya ….Islam pe joke kyu nahi karta hai”.
Eklavya Singh Gaur, who heads a local right-wing outfit- Hind Rakshak Sangathan, along with his followers created a ruckus at the event which eventually had to be canceled. Soon the police arrived, and several politically influenced goons gathered outside the venue. The audience was asked to leave the venue one by one and the comedian along with four others were arrested by the police based on a complaint registered by Eklavya. Besides Munawar, the complaint also named his fellow performers Prakhar Vyas, Priyam Vyas, Nalin Yadav, and event coordinator Edwin Anthony. A bail plea was filed on the next day which was rejected by Indore’s sessions court.
Police justified the arrest arbitrarily claiming that the complainant overheard ‘rehearsal jokes’ which the comedian was going to crack at the event. To make matters worse, Vijay Khatri, the Superintendent of Police in Indore, acknowledged that there was no evidence/video against the accused to support the allegations and even expressed that it did not really matter if the comedian had made those comments or jokes based on which he was arrested. He said: “Apart from the rehearsals, there were his old videos too. They were going to do it, anyway. All of their jokes were about Hindu gods and goddesses. It isn’t as if they would have not cracked these jokes if there was no Hungama,”
The High Court of Madhya Pradesh was then moved with the bail application which, on 15th January, adjourned the matter for six days since the police authorities failed to produce the case diary. It is pertinent to note that the concerned police station where the case diary is supposed to be located was just across the road from the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Subsequently, on 28th
January, in a shocking decision, the High Court rejected the bail application noting that “Such people should not be spared”. Contrary to the settled principles of law which recognize bail as a rule and jail as an exception, the court in the said matter relied on mere hearsay evidence of the complainants and ultimately decided that the case was not a fit case to grant bail. One of the main reasons cited by the Madhya Pradesh High Court for denying Munawar’s bail application was a pending case against him in Uttar Pradesh.
Following the New Year incident in Indore, an FIR was registered against Munawar on January 6 in George Town, Allahabad. The FIR was booked for charges of hurting the religious sentiments of people and affecting communal harmony. The charges of mocking Hindu deities are based on an April 2020 video in which the comedian is seen as cracking jokes on the song “Mera Piya Ghar aya O Ramji”.A UP police team even reached Indore securing a production warrant to seek his custody and it is expected that the case may be soon transferred to Allahabad.
In a country like India, where criminal jurisprudence operates on the presumption of innocence and imprisonment before a conviction is a violation of liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, the course taken by the authorities in Munawar’s case is quite astonishing. Recently, Supreme Court had granted bail to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami observing that “Deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many. We must always be mindful of the deeper systemic implications of our decisions.”
As of today, the five accused in this case including Munawar Faruqui have been under judicial custody for a month and for a crime they probably did not commit. Such instances shake the common man’s belief in his fundamental freedom of speech and expression. In the words of Kunal Kamra, another comedian who is fighting for his freedom of expression in the Supreme Court, “Country of Incarcerated Artists & Flourishing Lapdogs’ is Where India is Headed”.
