The times when even a song is a crime

Dalit singer Umesh Khade’s rap song lasts only for two minutes and fifty-four seconds. The tile of the runaway hit song on YouTube is Bhonngli Keli Janta (You stole people's clothes). Khade sings about woes of people in hunger, price rise and corruption. That was just enough for the Maharashtra police to arrest the singer charging him under the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act.The song, expressing feelings of the people who are still unable to climb out of the quagmire of poverty even after 76 years, does not mention any person or community by name. Yet the charges brought upon the singer includes deliberate mockery, breach of peace, creating enmity and hatred among the people and broadcasting obscenity. Four weeks after releasing the song, the Mumbai Crime Intelligence Unit filed a case in the first week of April and summoned Khade and his elderly relatives to Wadala police station for questioning.

This is not the first incident in Maharashtra. Another Dalit singer was arrested for his song in the last week of March. Singer Raj Mungase was charged with defamation, breach of peace and creating enmity between different groups for his one-and-a-half minutes song titled ‘ Chor’ ( Thieves).The song that reels out like this: ‘Look, these thieves have come with fifty crores, they are fine,’ mocks the politicians who dashed off to Surat, Guwahati and Goa alongside having been wined and dined and stuffed with wads of currencies. The song does not mention anybody by name. However, the politicians who lodged the case and the police who recorded the ‘crime’ had no doubt it was about the MLAs supporting the state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The authorities were not only angry about the singers raising the voice of dissent but their being artists from the Dalit community.Bhojpuri folk singer Neha Singh Rathore is another singer to be facing the wrath of the government. Neha’s song Mein Ka Baa, which came from the backdrop of a mother and daughter being burnt to death during eviction in Kanpur's Madauli village, was critical of Uttar Pradesh government and the police irking them both.The police charged the singer for creating enmity in the society. There was an attempt to assault her in a temple alongside moves to evict the family from the colony where they lived and her spouse was forced to leave work... and the revenges came in many ways. Remember, the leaders who are hailed as the strongest in the nation are reeling from shock over some four-line song.

Hunger, poverty and corruption are the realities of independent India. Both governments and political parties have significant roles in keeping them insoluble. As Umesh Khade sang in the now controversial song, 'Opposition and ruling party are celebrating hand in hand'. It is common for the people to express their anger against this situation. And artists, including singers, writers, and cinematographers becoming a corrective force is also normal. But the nation is at risk when the government responds to such constructive and positive criticisms with arrests and legal proceedings. The provisions of the Penal Code, imposed on artists and critics, and minority and opposition politicians who act within the limits of the freedom of expression and opinion guaranteed by the Constitution, do not arraign those who constantly spread extreme hatred and call for genocide. Let's not forget that Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, where Umesh Khade, Raj Mungase and Neha Rathore are implicated in the case, are the epicenters of the genocide calls. Even a song becomes a crime at a time when hate speech about others and praise for the state is common.