FIAT AGAINST HINDI SONGS
BY OUR STAFF REPORTER
Guwahati, April 16: Assam’s highest paid singer Zubeen Garg’s refusal to stop singing Hindi songs during a Rongali Bihu performance at Noonmati in the city on Friday night has generated heated debate over artistic freedom and soul of Bihu celebration.
Zubeen, who has many Hindi chartbusters to his me, left the function of Noonmati Bihu Committee on Friday night after he was stopped midway through his number ‘Dil tu hi bata’ from Hrithik Roshan’s superhit Krissh 3. Before leaving the stage, Zubeen hurled an abuse and told the audience that an artiste has the right to sing according to his choice. “I am an artiste. I have complete freedom and liberty to sing songs of any language. I have sung over 16,000 songs in 25 years. Hindi is our tiol language and bihu is a festival of music. Assamese, Hindi, Bengali and most other languages have origited from Sanskrit, and I don’t understand why I was stopped,” a miffed Zubeen later told jourlists. Meanwhile, organizers of Noonmati Bihu Committee have claimed that Zubeen had agreed beforehand not to sing Hindi songs. “It was a gentleman’s agreement that he flouted, prompting us to stop him. We are not opposed to any language, but bihu is not for singing Hindi songs,” said an organizer.
While majority of people from different walks of life have supported Zubeen, saying that there is absolutely nothing wrong in singing Hindi songs during bihu functions and freedom of artistes must be respected under any circumstance, some are of the opinion that the singer overreacted while others termed the incident as nothing but publicity stunt.
Social media was abuzz with views and comments on the issue with many divided on whether Zubeen did the right thing or should he have refrained from singing Hindi songs during Assam’s biggest festival. Many showed solidarity with the singer using the hashtag #IStandWithZubeen.