Muslim comedian detained by police in India for five days in free speech crackdown

Munawar Faruqui was accused of making anti-Hindu comments by the son of a local politician who attended his gig

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A Muslim comedian has been detained for five days in India after he was accused of insulting Hindu gods at a gig.

Munawar Faruqui, a popular stand-up who is often critical of the government, was performing in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state of Madhya Pradesh when the son of a local politician stormed the stage and accused him of sacrilege.

Mr Faruqui was assaulted by a mob after the gig and brought by the politician’s son, Eklavya Gaur, to the police station. 

He has been detained along with four friends on the grounds of "hurting religious sentiments".

However, police in Indore city admitted on Tuesday that they had no evidence of Mr Faruqui making any anti-Hindu remarks during the show. 

“There’s no evidence against him for insulting Hindu deities or Union Minister Amit Shah,” said a police spokesperson in Indore, who clarified that anti-Hindu videos submitted by Mr Gaur were actually of another comedian.

Members of the audience had also shared videos of the gig, where Mr Faruqui was not seen to be insulting Hinduism or Home Office minister Amit Shah, another of the allegations.

Fellow comedians have called for his release, arguing the case is yet another example of a crackdown on freedom of speech in India. “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,” said Varun Grover, an Indian stand-up comedian.

India’s ruling BJP has detained opposition activists and politicians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected with a landslide victory in 2019, as well as introducing a string of Islamophobic policies.

Madhya Pradesh became the third Indian state to pass legislation effectively criminalising marriages between Muslims and Hindus in December, emboldening Hindu nationalist mobs who have since attacked several mosques.