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Tollywood’s toxic fandom now has state support. Pawan Kalyan joke arrests are abuse of power

The arrests of comedians Anudeep Katikala and Rafiq show that the South is much the same as the rest of India when it comes to freedom of speech and tolerance.

Last week, I received a frantic text from a friend who is a stand-up comedian. It was about his colleague Anudeep Katikala, who was in Prayagraj at the time. Two cops from Andhra Pradesh had turned up there, where he was staying with his parents, detained him, and then took him all the way back to AP’s Kakinada district to formally arrest him.

His crime? A couple of jokes on Tollywood star and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, who also heads the Jana Sena Party (JSP). An FIR was filed against Anudeep on the basis of a complaint by a JSP worker over jokes he cracked on Kalyan and his relative Ram Charan, also an actor.

Two days later, another comedian, Rafiq Muhammad, who is from Vizag in AP, was also arrested based on an FIR registered against him in Andhra’s Machilipatnam. In his case too, the cops turned up at his residence and escorted him away to arrest him.

A friend of his, who was updating reporters on the case, told me that JSP workers were already waiting for Rafiq and had surrounded him, threatened him, and left only when he agreed to post “positive” content about Pawan Kalyan. Rafiq, like Anudeep, had cracked jokes on politicians and the Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM.

In Rafiq’s case, one could........

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