After Moosewala’s SYL: YouTube pulls down another Punjabi song on Govt complaint
The song asked government why it was going against the Sikh community and said that the Punjabis are only asking that Sikh prisoners be released from jails.
Video sharing platform YouTube Friday took down popular Punjabi singer Kanwar Grewal’s song “Rihaee”, which calls for the release of Sikh prisoners, following a complaint from Government of India.
“Content Unavailable. This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government,” the social media platform said.
This comes days after YouTube pulled down slain Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s song “SYL”, which was released posthumously and had garnered nearly 28 million views and 3.3 million likes in two days, following a similar complaint by the government.
The song released last week by Grewal, who has nearly seven lakh subscribers on YouTube, had nearly seven lakh views before it was pulled down. The song asked government why it was going against the Sikh community and said that the Punjabis are only asking that Sikh prisoners be released from jails.
The demand for release of Sikh prisoners was a key issue in the recently concluded bypoll to Sangrur Lok Sabha seat where Shiromani Akali Dal had fielded the sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana who is on death row for assassinating former chief minister Beant Singh. Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007.
Meanwhile, Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked the Centre to immediately revoke the “ban” Gurewal’s song, which he said reflects sentiments of the community, which is perturbed over the continuous incarceration of Sikhs despite the completion of their jail term.
“Kanwar Grewal has done nothing more than using poetry to highlight this grievance besides demanding that history books should not be rewritten. This does not call for a ban under any circumstances,” Badal added.
Asking the Centre to reconsider its decision, Badal said, “Such bans have the capacity to create a wrong impression about India. We cannot be seen to be suppressing the freedom of speech which is enshrined in our Constitution”.
He said India is known as the world’s largest democracy that respects pluralism. “The Union government should ensure the country stays this way. Democracies which do not respect freedom of speech and expression cannot remain sustainable for long,” he said.
Badal, who is also an MP, said he will take up this issue in the forthcoming Parliament session also. “The ban on the ‘Rihaee’ song comes soon after the ban on the Moosewala’s song ‘SYL, which also reflected the aspirations of Punjabis who do not want their water to be diverted to Haryana through the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal,” he said.
Badal said the SAD will also ask the Centre to disclose the specific complaint in both cases and who had registered these. “We will also demand a broader discussion on this issue to ensure corrective steps can be taken and this trend is stopped,” he added.
Ahead of this year’s Assembly poll in Punjab in February this year, BJP in-charge for state Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had assured a “positive development” soon from the Centre’s side on “Sikh political prisoners” who were to be released as per a 2019 Union government notification. The assurance had come after some Sikh organisations approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
Earlier, in October 2019, the Centre had, on the eve of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, issued a notification for release of eight Sikh prisoners and the commutation of death sentence of one to life imprisonment.