‘I feel very responsible for what is happening around me’
Interview with Kanwar Grewal, singer.
HIS songs Ailaan (Proclamation: The Voice of People) and Pecha created waves during the farmers’ protests, so much so that the video recording of Ailaan was taken off from Youtube without much of an explanation. At 37, Kanwar Grewal is the latest singing sensation, enjoying millions of views in the subcontinent, even among people who do not necessarily understand Punjabi. He intersperses his singing with conversations with the audience. The farmers’ movement, he says, impacted him a lot and he felt drawn towards it. He says he cannot understand why Pecha, which had drawn more viewers on Youtube, was retained while Ailaan was banned. Both the songs had similar lyrics exemplifying the angst of farmers.
The lines Faslaa de faisle kisaan karuga (only the farmer will decide about his crops) in Ailaan have resonated among the protesting farmers, including the non-punjabi-speaking sections among them. His live performances on the borders of Delhi, almost back to back, took place in mid January in the peak of winter and in the open air.
On February 13, Kanwar Grewal relaunched Ailaan fer taun (Proclamation once again) with a voice-over that says: “If you can spare time to listen to our songs to ban it, you had better listen to the demands of farmers instead of the songs. Songs can be banned from the social media, but how could you ban the voice of the people?” He spoke to Frontline about his protest songs, the ban and his own involvement with the protests. Excerpts:
Your song was removed from Youtube. How did you deal with this?
I took it in my stride. It was very normal for me. Ailaan was released two and a half months ago and millions of people have already heard it. The lines Faslaa de faisle kisaan karuga has become a slogan. So I don’t assess the ban professionally or commercially. If the government has problems with it, it’s their right. Instead of blaming anyone, I thought I should prepare another version. The lyrics are the same and are penned by the same person. We have added more in the song.
How did you realise that the songs had been removed? Did you receive any legal notice?
Actually, all these things are handled by my brother. He told me the song had been removed and the government had sent a complaint to Youtube. Then friends called up, very upset, saying that the songs were no longer there. We felt that the government could do what it wants, we will do what we need to do. That is how we decided to launch the second part of Ailaan. I don’t have access to any of the messaging sites like Whatsapp, Twitter or online music sharing platforms like Youtube. I just use a basic phone for making and receiving calls.
What made you participate and sing in the protests?
When the protests started, no one really told me to sing. I come from a farmer’s family and I know the value of the produce and the effort that goes into it. Even though I have no experience of working in the fields, I know the importance of it in my life. I could empathise with the people who were sitting on protest. When I saw 70- and 80 -year-olds sitting there on protest, I realised they were doing it for us, the younger generation. After all they have few years ahead of them, but they were sacrificing those years of their lives for us. This is the first time that I got to know about the jathebandis
[farmer organisations]. I had some pedestrian knowledge about them but never had an occasion to interact with them earlier.
I am 37 years old but I got acquainted with the work of the jathebandis and about the farmer issues only four months ago. Farmer leaders used to make announcements in the villages and go door to door explaining the farm laws. I watched them and liked what I saw. Now it’s been four months and they all feel like family.
Was the kind of response you received from the protest songs, nationally and internationally, more than what you have received for the songs that you have sung in the past?
The first thing is that I am responsible to the State where I was born. As an artist I am responsible to my place of birth. An artist should reflect on what is happening in the environment around him or her. I draw a lot of satisfaction from the fact that my voice, my talent and my songs are coming of use to my society.
Punjabis are very large-hearted. As far as the response to my songs is concerned, I have been very fortunate. If Punjabis feel that anyone is sincere and of good intent, they will give up their lives for that person. They are very emotional people. But not only me, other brother singers have also contributed a lot to the movement. After the protests, my interaction and connect with people have become even more stronger.
The lyrics connect a lot with the people. We have quite a bit of the “Punjabi form” in popular music, including music that is produced in the Mumbai film industry.
To be honest, before the protest, people were singing the usual kind of songs which had to do with romance forms, gun culture, drugs, etc. They were not critical of what was happening in society. But after the protests began, many singers have come forward to participate in whichever way they can. People began to see things differently. After the events of January 26, there was a sadness all over, but we soon did live shows at the Tikri and Shahjahanpur protest points and we began singing those songs again. The role of music in expressing emotions—we call them khushiyaan and gamiyaan (joy and sadness)—is typical of the songs in our country. It’s universal. Thanks to this government, there are protests almost every day, by students, teachers, employees. But Kanwar Grewal has never come forward to sing earlier. I never sang any protest songs before. I feel very responsible now for what is happening around me.
Whatsapp group and collaborated with the prokhalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation to “spread disaffection against the Indian state”.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Nikita Jacob, a Mumbai-based lawyer, and an activist, Shantanu Muluk, in Aurangabad in connection with the toolkit case. Nikita Jacob secured transit anticipatory bail and Shantanu Muluk was granted pre-arrest bail by court. All three, Disha Ravi, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, have been charged with IPC Sections 124 (a) (sedition), 153 (a) (promoting enmity between different sections of the community) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy).
Meanwhile, Haryana’s Health Minister Anil Vij tweeted that if seeds of anti-nationalism were sown in anybody’s thought process, such people should be destroyed. Disha Ravi’s arrest in particular and the subsequent police remand by a magistrate, without she being given an opportunity to seek legal counsel, evoked strong reactions from sections of the legal fraternity. Deepak Gupta, a former Supreme Court judge, told the media that there was nothing seditious about the contents of the toolkit, at least the one that he had seen on social media. It appeared as if the authorities wanted to make an example of all those young protesters who were speaking their minds on the injustices of the day.
Prem Singh Bhangu, convener of the legal team set up by the farmers’ unions and president of the All India Kisan Federation, told Frontline that the arrests of farmers and their supporters represented “intimidation tactics”. He said 122 farmers had been booked under various clauses in connection with the events of January 26 and January 29 (when a violent mob gathered at Singhu on the Delhi-haryana border demanding that the protesters be removed) and were lodged at Tihar Jail, Delhi. Of them, only 16 had been granted bail; the bail applications of 17 others have been listed for February 18. “One hundred and six are in jail at present. Twenty-one persons were booked for unlawful assembly, obstructing a public servant from discharging his/her duty, and the rest have been charged with attempt to murder,” he said.
The police, he said, were rounding up people from all places. “There are cases of attempt to murder and dacoity against the 36 farmer leaders who are spearheading the SKM. I am also one of them who has been named,” said Prem Singh Bhangu, a practising lawyer in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
He said the police were also harassing farmers who had returned to their villages by issuing them notices under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC), calling them to join the investigations. Said Prem Singh: “This is to implicate them falsely in cases. We have told those farmers receiving notices not to respond to them. Of a total of 44 FIRS [first information reports], 14 are against anonymous persons. The FIRS don’t have any names, just suspected and unidentified people. We feel that if the farmers respond to those notices they will be named in those FIRS. We get calls almost every day from
farmers who receive such notices asking us what they should do. The police are acting at the behest of the Central government. It is like a psychological warfare by the government in order to scare farmers from joining the protests. It is all part of their plan to finish off the agitation.”
He said some farmers were tortured in police custody. According to him, 11 young farmers, all from Moga district in Punjab, on their way to Tikri were taken to a police station when they asked for directions. “All of them were booked for attempt to murder. These are the kind of excesses being committed,” he said.
Referring to the events of January 26, Prem Singh said the police had deliberately obstructed even those routes that had been mutually agreed upon between the farmers’ unions and the police. “They put up barricades even on the approved routes, which resulted in people deviating from those routes. The routes leading to the Red Fort were opened and unobstructed. Several antisocial elements were already present at Red Fort, which points out to a pre-planned conspiracy. Why were the routes on the Outer Ring Road leading to the Red Fort opened up at all? This was a plan to create a communal divide between Sikhs and Hindus. That is why we have demanded a judicial inquiry into the events that occurred at the Red Fort,” he said.
On the toolkit controversy, he said that the arrests were undemocratic. Said Prem Singh: “They are apprehending and identifying people who are supporting the farmers’ movement. Earlier also the National Investigation Agency [NIA] issued notices to farmer leaders and those who were helping with food, transport and medicines at the protest site, alleging that they were being funded from abroad. The notices asked them to join the investigation and explain the source of the funding. On December 15, 2020, FIRS were lodged against known Khalistanis. Under that FIR, notices were issued to our leaders and supporters just to spread terror. The charge was that we were creating a Khalistan here with those funds. The people who have been booked for the toolkit are being unnecessarily harassed for supporting the farmers’ protest.” In a related development, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked Twitter to suspend several accounts under 69 A of the Inform
ation Technology Act. Needless to add, most of the Twitter handles were of those supporting the farmers’ cause. According to the government, their tweets were “part of a motivated campaign to abuse, inflame and create tension in society on unsubstantiated grounds”.
TWITTER ACCOUNTS SUSPENDED
Twitter suspended 500 accounts, including those of a news magazine and activists and outfits supporting the protest. It later restored 250 accounts, following which the government served Twitter with a non-compliance notice. On its part, Twitter argued that it was complying very much with Indian law and was not going to take any action against accounts of news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians. If it were to do so, it would violate the fundamental rights of expression under Indian law, it said. The farmers’ protest has taken a new form, with the campaign taking a more concrete shape and its focus shifting to greater participation within States. There is also the realisation that a wider mobilisation, including of agricultural labourers, might be necessary to strengthen the movement. For this very reason on
February 17, a joint panchayat of various khaps at Rohtak resolved to make the protests broad-based. It even constituted a legal team to provide aid to farmers who had been charged under various cases. In yet another significant move, a plan to constitute a committee to mediate with the government was dropped; instead, a coordination centre between the SKM and khaps was set up at Rohtak.
The Central government seems to have almost given up the idea of having any more consultations with farmers. More than a month has passed since the last meeting of January 22, which ended badly even though farmer unions have consistently expressed a willingness to attend talks. But the government’s law and order agencies have been keeping a tight watch on all forms of support— material and otherwise—to the farmers’ protest with the assumption that all such support is aimed at destabilising the government. The latest directive to Youtube to remove the popular songs of the Sufi singer Kanwar Grewal reeks of this paranoia. And booking youngsters and women has become the latest leaf in the government’s law and order playbook $