Munawar Faruqui's show was scheduled for Sunday afternoon (August 28) at Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium, C-Block, SPM Civic Center in Central Delhi.
New Delhi: Delhi Police has denied permission for stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui's show in central Delhi to maintain communal harmony after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad wrote a letter to the city's police chief, officials said today.
A senior police officer said the central district police in its report to the licensing unit said the show would affect community harmony in the area.
Munawar Faruqui's show was scheduled for Sunday afternoon (August 28) at Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium, C-Block, SPM Civic Center in Central Delhi.
According to the police, the Central District Police filed a report with the permit department on Friday, after which the permit for the show was denied on the same day.
While granting the permission, it is already stated in the form that the program/event will not affect the harmony of the community in the area. However, if the licensing unit gets any contribution that affects the harmony of the community, permission to perform is denied, the officer said.
Surendra Kumar Gupta, state president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or VHP, wrote a letter to the Delhi Police Commissioner on Thursday urging him not to give permission to introduce Mr. Faruqui.
The letter stated that Mr. Faruqui would hold a program at the Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium in the Civic Center on August 28 and alleged that he was mocking Hindu gods and goddesses, which had created tension in Hyderabad recently.
Mr. Gupta asked the police to cancel the show or the VHP and Bajrang Dal workers would lodge a protest against him.
The organizer of the show refused to comment on the matter.
After the news of the cancellation of the show broke, Trinamool Congress MP Mohua Moitra tweeted, "VHP is bullying the spineless @Delhipolice, cancel the @munawar0018 show. Gandhiji said, "I don't want my house to be walled up from all sides and my windows to be boarded up. " Is the collective harmony of India@75 so fragile today that a comedy show is disrupting it?"
