After 16 cancellations of his shows, comedian Munawar Faruqui was back on stage with a sell out show in Mumbai. The Mumbai event was held with the support of the All India Professional Congress (AIPC), a wing of the Congress.
Talking to The Hindu, Mathew Anthony, president of AIPC, said, “On November 27, I got a call from actor Pooja Bhatt expressing concern over Mr. Faruqui not being able to perform. Till then, I didn’t know him personally, I had never met him.”
“We met him on November 29 and we had a very clear political stand that we are not sponsoring the show. We are only upholding fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution. We had decided that we don’t have to challenge the stand of right wingers and are only standing for the fundamental rights of performers (right to livelihood) and rights of the audience. We are very clear that we are not looking for any political patronage and are trying to restore fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution,” he said.
It was decided that on December 18 Mr. Faruqui’s show will be organised at the YB Chavan auditorium as the venue holds a lot of political importance and getting police approvals will be the responsibility of the organisers.
Mr. Anthony, however, kept the local police in loop along with Maharahstra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil.
A senior police official requesting anonymity said, “The event went off very smoothly. We had also deployed some police personnel for security.”
According to Mr. Anthony, “His show was like that of Charlie Chaplin, cracking jokes on his own misery, on his arrest in Bhopal.”
The 29-year-old comedian has 1.29 lakh followers on Twitter and 7.79 lakh followers on Instagram. On December 19, he tweeted with a photo saying, “Big thanks to Mumbai Police and Mr Anthony for standing for democracy and rights of an individual”.
After his show was cancelled in Bangalore on November 28, Mr. Faruqui had put out a message on social media saying, “In the last two months we have cancelled 12 shows because of the Threats to Venue and Audience. I think this is The End.”
