The Hyderabad Police detained a BJP MLA on Friday after he threatened to burn down a city venue where comedian Munawar Faruqui is set to perform this evening. After making repeated threats that he would not allow Faruqui to perform in the city, T Raja Singh was on the way to the venue when he was taken into preventive detention by the police.

“This is not an arrest. As he tried to go, we took him in our custody. We will see how things go,” a senior officer told the Indian Express. Singh will apparently be held till Faruqui’s show at hall number 3 of the HITEX convention centre is completed.

Singh’s Instagram account has shared a video of him being intercepted on the way to venue by the Hyderabad police. The post states, “Today I have been placed under house arrest by Telangana Police. TRS Govt has become a complete Anti-Hindu party.” The caption continues, “Now TRS Government and Telangana Police will be responsible for what ever happens on 22nd of August. #waitandwatch It’s Show Time”

Meanwhile, Faruqui’s Dongri To Nowhere show at a convention hall in J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru was cancelled by city police yesterday after a complaint was filed by a Hindutva organisation. The complaint alleged that Faruqui’s show would hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

Last December, K T Rama Rao—a minister in the Telangana government—had offered an open invitation to Faruqui last December to perform in Hyderabad after an earlier show in Bengaluru was similarly cancelled. He made the statement in the context of increasing rivalry and competition between the two states for investment, which perhaps helps explain why even the possibility of Munawar Faruqui performing a joke remains such a hot political issue.

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