Bengaluru:
In some relief for singer Sonu Nigam amid the row surrounding his ‘Kannada’ remark, the Karnataka High Court has said that the state government has assured no coercive action will be taken against the artiste provided he cooperates with the investigation.
The singer has approached the high court, seeking a dismissal of the cases filed against him for his remarks at a concert in Bengaluru last month.
At the event, Mr Nigam said a student in the audience “rudely” threatened him to sing Kannada songs. A viral video showed the singer saying, “In my career, I have sung in multiple languages, but the best songs I have ever sung are in Kannada. We do a lot of shows in a lot of places, but whenever we have shows in Karnataka, we come with a lot of respect for you. You have treated me like your family, but I didn’t like it when the boy there, who is not even as old as my career, rudely threatened me to sing in Kannada.” He added, “It is because of such behaviour that incidents like the Pahalgam attack happen.”
The remarks sparked a massive row. The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce announced a ‘non-cooperation’ campaign against the singer and said this would continue till he apologised.
Dharmaraj A, a leader of pro-Kannada group Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, filed a police complaint against the singer. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered against Sonu Nigam under sections relating to intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and incitement to public mischief.
The FIR accused the singer of making remarks that “emotionally provoked” and “hurt the sentiments” of the Kannadiga community.
District Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru Rural, C K Baba had pointed to the singer’s Pahalgam parallel. “There was no correlation between the request for a Kannada song and the incident in Kashmir. Yet, he made a statement along those lines, which hurt the sentiments of Kannadigas. Hence, we registered a case,” he said.
The singer later issued a public apology. “Sorry Karnataka. My love for you is bigger than my ego. Love you always,” he said.
In an earlier post, the popular singer had said, “I am not a young lad to take humiliation from anyone. I am 51 years old, in the second half of my life and am entitled to take offence for someone as young as my son threatening me directly in front of thousands in the name of language that too Kannada which is my second language when it comes to my work.”
