Ban guns and we’ll stop singing: New song

CHANDIGARH: Two months after Punjab Police asked

Punjabi

singers not to glorify violence in their songs, a singer-rapper duo have released a track in which they blame the government’s practice of issuing firearm licences for the state’s gun culture.


Singer

Elly Mangat

, in his new

song

‘Tattoo’, asks the government to stop the practice if it wants them to stop writing such songs. He goes on to justify the glorification of guns in Punjabi songs with the lyrics: “Licencey asla, koyi na masla; taanhi taan hikk taadan (I have a licensed gun and do not have any trouble with anyone, this is why I walk proudly on the streets with a gun)”.

Mangat is a YouTube hit. His first song, ‘Affair’, was released in 2016 and clocked over 14 million views. He has many hits to his name this year, including ‘About That Life’ and ‘Kartoos Anthem’.

Rapper Nikhil Saini, who goes by artist name Raja Game Changerz, reiterates Elly’s opinion in the rap part of the song. “Government ton saddi gallan hundi nahio sehn. Band kardaangay geet, hathiyar karo ban (the government cannot bear our songs; we will stop singing, but first ban guns),” he raps in the song.

The song has clocked 1.8 million views on YouTube since its release on May 17. Vadda Grewal has penned the lyrics.

‘Act against illicit arms, not singers’
Though the singer takes on the government aggressively over gun licences, the music video shows him in a luxurious house, amid luxury cars, and his “crew” armed with guns. The lyrics, on the other hand, do not promote drugs, violence or gangsterism. The song’s theme is on a tattoo of the singer Babbu Mann, engraved on Mangat’s left hand.

Saini, aged 19, told The Times of India on Monday that the government’s move to ask singers not to sing about weapons was meant to ward attention off its failures. “They have not been able to put a curb on the trade of illicit firearms. I have never used a weapon, but we write such songs because youngsters like them,” he said. “As far as opposition to such songs goes, there is an illegal weapon in every house of Punjab. Everybody knows that. People who want us to stop are politicians who have failed to control law and order.”

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