HYDERABAD –  After Munawar Faruqui’s event was forced to cancel by Hindutva groups in Bengaluru, Telangana Minister for IT and industries and TRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) stated the comedian has an “open invitation” to perform in Hyderabad.

The minister made this comment while addressing at the launch of the US-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, commonly known as Mass Mutual, office in Hyderabad.

KTR took the advantage of the situation to welcome people to Hyderabad, asserting that the TRS regime is more cosmopolitan than Bengaluru and that the TRS government is tolerant of opposition.

In our city, stand-up comedians get an open invitation, the minister stated during the inauguration event on Friday, December 17. “We don’t cancel shows of Munawar Faruqui and Kunal Kamra just because we are not aligned with them politically,” KTR claimed.

Taking a jab at Bengaluru by saying that it is not a “true” metropolitan city, he further stated, “I am just saying that to people listening from Bengaluru or those people who are from Bengaluru, you claim to be a cosmopolitan city, and then you end up taking comedy very seriously. We (Hyderabad) are a truly cosmopolitan city that is welcoming of all cultures, welcoming of criticism. You can come here, criticise the government… in fact, we receive a lot of brickbats from our opposition every day. We are very tolerant,” the minister added.

Stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui‘s show ‘From Dongri to Nowhere’ had been cancelled in Bengaluru days before Kunal Kamra’s show due to threats from Hindu factions. On November 27, only a day before Faruqui’sshow, Bengaluru police requested the Good Shepherd Auditorium in the city’s Ashok Nagar area, where the show was scheduled to take place, to cancel it.

The Bengaluru police had written to the organisers, stating that Munawar is a “controversial figure,” and that if the show is allowed to go on, there could be a law and order issue due to threats made on social media by Hindu factions such as the Jai Shri Ram Sena Sanghathan and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.

Munawar’s event was scheduled to take place in the Good Shepherd theatre on November 28th, and the promoters claimed that 700 tickets had been sold prior to the cancellation.

Munawar Faruqui is a Gujarati stand-up comedian who was detained by Indore police in 2021 after a BJP MLA’s son stated the jokes “he was about to crack” at a local event were disrespectful.