A day after BJP MP D Arvind threatened to obstruct comedian Munawar Faruqui’s stand-up event in Hyderabad, Telangana state BJP president Bandi Sanjay on Saturday, December 25 urged the youth wing of the party to prevent the show from happening. Addressing party workers, Bandi Sanjay said, “While other states have banned a fool [Munawar] from performing, someone who has made fun of Ramayana and Mahabharata, the son of the state’s Chief Minister who claims to be a hard-core Hindu has invited him to perform here. Hindu society has to introspect on this.”
Munawar’s show ‘Dhandho’ is scheduled to be held on January 9, 2022. However, the venue details have not been announced yet.
Addressing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Bandi Sanjay said, “Your son is an atheist, first convert him to a bhakt. Everyone in the Telangana cabinet are atheists. That is why Hindu society and Hindu devotees are being humiliated,” he alleged. Urging BJP Yuva Morcha workers to stop the comedy event, he said Munawar had no right to step on Telangana soil.
BJP MLA Raja Singh also filed a complaint with the Director General of Police Mahender Reddy on Saturday asking the police chief to deny permission for Munawar’s show. In his complaint, Raja Singh alleged that Munawar espoused hatred towards the Hindu religion and its gods and goddesses.
“If the programme is conducted, Hindu supporters will come out on the roads and protests will take place in peaceful Hyderabad (sic). We hope our request will be considered in keeping the social and religious atmosphere in control,” Raja Singh said.
Munawar Faruqui announced his show in Hyderabad on December 22, a few days after Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development and TRS working president KT Rama Rao took a jibe at the BJP-governed Karnataka for preventing comedians Munawar and Kunal Kamra from performing in the state capital, Bengaluru.
Speaking at an event on December 17, KTR had said, “In our city, stand-up comedians get an open invite. We don’t cancel shows of Munawar Faruqui and Kunal Kamra just because we are not aligned with them politically.” Taking a potshot at Bengaluru by saying that it is not a “true” metropolitan city, he further said, “I’m just saying that to people listening from Bengaluru or those people who are from Bengaluru, you claim to be a cosmopolitan city, and then you end up taking comedy very seriously. We (Hyderabad) are a truly cosmopolitan city who are welcoming of all cultures, welcoming of criticism. You can come here, criticise the government… in fact, we receive a lot of brickbats from our opposition every day. We are very tolerant,” he said.
A top source in the Telangana government told TNM that there are no plans to cancel the show as of now, however, a review will be conducted soon.