After Saif Ali Khan’s co-star Kubbra Sait, now two top comedians in the country have extended their support to Munawar Faruqui, who was allegedly assaulted before being arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police for alleged crude jokes on Home Minister Amit Shah. Varun Grover, the writer of Sacred Games, and Vir Das have taken to their social media pages to express their shock at Faruqui’s arrest.
Varun took to Instagram to share the video of the ruckus caused by BJP MLA’s son, Eklavya Gaur, as he wrote, “A fellow Indian, a fellow comedian is in jail and got beaten up by a mob because of the words he uttered. Here he’s trying to logically, calmly present his case but our systems now just want to brutally silence every voice.”
Varun continued, “They don’t want to hear, they don’t want to even argue – they want to simply erase every shred of individual thought, every iota of reason. And we the people of the greatest civilization of earth are ok with it.”
He also clarified that there was no truth in media reporting accusing Munawar of hurting religious sentiments. He wrote, “So much of the reporting is making it sound like Munawar said something offensive (ideally even if he had it doesn’t matter, but okay) but it’s simply not true.”
Comedian Vir Das tweeted, “You can’t stop jokes and laughter. Not because comedians are performing it, but because people need to laugh. Harder you try, the more you’re going to be laughed at, now, and by history. Anyone who has ever tried to control humour, now has a category of jokes devoted to them.”
You can’t stop jokes and laughter. Not because comedians are performing it, but because people need to laugh. Harder you try, the more you’re going to be laughed at, now, and by history.
Anyone who has ever tried to control humour, now has a category of jokes devoted to them.
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) January 3, 2021
Vir also shared a screenshot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet that read, “I think we need more satire and humour. Humour brings happiness in our lives. Humour is the best healer.”
I’m just going to leave this here. pic.twitter.com/C8eqqDzPya
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) January 3, 2021
Earlier, Saif Ali Khan’s co-star Kubbra Sait had tweeted, “#MunawarFaruqui how insensitive is our leadership to be sentimental towards jokes?”
Faruqui was arrested with four others, identified as Edwin Anthony, Prakhar Vyas, Priyam Vyas and Nalin Yadav. Meanwhile, Twitter erupted in support for the comedian from Gujarat, whose bail has been denied by a local court. Unaffected by the ruckus created by BJP MLA Malini Laxman Singh Gaur’s son, Eklavya Singh Gaur, the stand-up comedian had continued with his jokes including one on the ‘PM-Cares Fund’ and ‘supari to Ambani’.