A young stand-up comic with an infectious grin, Munawar Faruqui has made a name for himself on India’s comedy circuit in recent years by delivering sharp-edged satire with a boyish, unassuming stage presence.
Yet along with appreciative fans, the millennial Muslim comedian also caught the attention of Hindu zealots, who resent his casual references to Hindu deities, allusions to deadly anti-Muslim riots and barbs about leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party.
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “New India”, such irreverence can carry a heavy price. On New Year’s Day in the prosperous city of Indore, Faruqui was beginning a show when Hindu vigilantes, led by the son of a BJP state legislator, disrupted the performance and hustled him off to a police station.
Faruqui, 30, and four other comics were arrested on charges of violating a British colonial-era law that makes it a criminal offence to “deliberately outrage the religious feelings of any community”.
For the next 36 days, Faruqui sat in jail, his bail application thrice rejected by lower courts, with one judge declaring it is “the constitutional duty of every citizen to promote brotherhood and harmony”.
He was finally freed late on Saturday night, more than 36 hours after India’s Supreme Court ordered he be granted bail. But the ordeal of the young comic — whose family home was destroyed in Gujarat’s 2002 communal riots — is far from over.
Faruqui now faces a protracted legal battle fighting criminal charges in both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, a state ruled by the radical Hindu cleric Yogi Adityanath, a BJP stalwart. His fellow comics remain in jail.
Even if he is acquitted, Faruqui’s travails send a chilling message to other comedians — especially those from India’s Muslim minority — planning to riff on India’s contemporary politics or social life. They joke at their peril, as the ruling party and its zealous Hindu supporters are watching.
India’s many sweeping colonial-era criminal statutes — which make it a crime to deliberately offend people’s religious feelings or promote enmity between communities — give authorities plenty of legal tools to apply pressure on critical voices.
“Faruqui’s case shouldn’t be seen in isolation,” says Akash Banerjee, a popular political satirist. “It is part of the gradual creeping control over any sort of dissent. Today, talking about religion is off the table. Tomorrow, criticising any politician will be off the table because in India, politicians are demigods.”
Comics aren’t the only ones feeling the heat. Police in five BJP-ruled states have filed criminal charges against a senior Indian executive from Amazon’s video streaming services and a clutch of Bollywood film personalities over a scene in a new Amazon Prime mini-series, Tandav, in which students in a college play portray Hindu gods discussing politics.
Though the scene was deleted after an uproar, the Supreme Court rebuffed the filmmakers’ plea for protection from arrest, saying their constitutional right to free speech did not extend to hurting people’s religious feelings.
In court, actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, who played a student acting the part of Lord Shiva, argued he should not be punished for dialogue uttered while in character. But Judge MR Shah — who has praised Modi as India’s “most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader” — disagreed, saying the actor had read the script before signing up for the role.
Journalists are also under fire, with three BJP-ruled states filing charges of sedition and instigation of violence against a clutch of prominent journalists and Congress party parliament member Shashi Tharoor for tweets — whose accuracy was later contested — about the death of a farmer in recent protests.
Taken together, the recent flurry of high-profile legal cases are a stark warning to Indian public figures, including in the media and the arts, about the potential price of sharp political critique.
“One has to be very careful in the times in which we live,” says Banerjee. “Everything can be misconstrued. The law book is open for anyone to misuse.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
