Agri officer for action against YouTuber over satirical video

FARIDKOT: An officer of the Punjab agriculture department has sought legal action against a Barnala-based video humourist, who has a large following on YouTube, for allegedly posting defamatory content showing farmers’ anger against the department.

In his letter dated June 14, Barnala block agricultural officer Sarbjit Singh has asked station house officer of Dhanaula area police to take legal action against Harinder Singh, a resident of Kotdona village in Barnala district.

Harinder runs a Youtube channel ‘Producer DXxX’ with five friends, and posted the fiveminute fictional video showing farmers beating up agricultural officers who come to destroy their paddy sown before the mandated date of June 20.

The Punjab government has banned sowing before this date in an effort to save subsoil water required in large amounts for paddy. The video was posted on June 12 and has been viewed more than 74,000 times till date.

In the letter to the SHO, Sarbjit has stated: “The video is defaming the Punjab government, agricultural department and farmer welfare department. Thus, we request you to take a legal action against Harinder.”

When contacted, Harinder defended the video by saying it is a work of art practised as freedom of expression. He said they started the channel in 2016 and produce content dealing with social issues and humour.

“We have received a call from the agriculture department after posting the video, but we don’t care about any case as we have not used any real names in the video,” he said.

Chief agricultural officer Rachpal Singh said, “It (video) affects the morale of officials and that’s why our block officer has sought legal action.”

SHO Naib Singh told HT to contact the police station munshi (clerk) who receives complaints. The munshi, head constable Karamjit Singh, confirmed having got the complaint from the agricultural department on email, and said, “We will pursue it after discussion with our senior officials.”