Comedian Munawar Faruqui is in the news once again. This time, for yet another cancellation. 

It has been reported that the controversial comedian has now been dropped from the upcoming Gurgaon Comedy Festival. 

The reason for cancelling Munawar’s appearance from the 3-day festival is cited to be “public safety”. 

Organisers revealed that they received multiple calls and messages from people opposing Munawar’s participation in the festival. 

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The organiser of the event, Mubin Tisekar of the Entertainment Factory told Indian Express, “We did not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments or put the public in danger… so we removed him from the panel. The decision was taken yesterday and we made changes on the poster and ticketing platform. For us, safety of artists and public is a priority… audience is everything.” 

He further revealed that as soon as the posters of the event were shared online, they faced backlash, “After the tweets, we repeatedly got calls from everywhere. We did not want to go ahead with all that. I will not comment on who all were calling and complaining. At the end of the day… this business is about making people laugh.” 

That’s not all, there has been a fresh police complaint filed against Munawar by BJP Haryana’s IT department head Arun Yadav. 

He has accused Munawar of 'insulting Hindu gods and goddesses' and 'hurting religious sentiments'. 

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In his complaint, Arun wrote, “To maintain peace and harmony between different sections of the society, I request you to look into the matter and stop him… His activities have offended my Hindu faith”. 

Earlier this year in January, Munawar Faruqui was arrested in Indore and spent a month in jail for allegedly insulting Hindu gods and goddesses. A few days back, he had taken to social media to announce that he is quitting comedy after 12 of his shows got cancelled in 2 months. 

The caption of his Instagram post read, “Nafrat jeet gai, Artist haar gaya. Im done! Goodbye. INJUSTICE.” 

A part of his statement read, “Putting me in jail for the joke I never did, to cancelling my shows which have nothing problematic in it. This is unfair. This show has gained so much love from people in India irrespective of their religion. This is unfair.”

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