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Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editors: Prajjwal Kumar, Abhishek Sharma
The India tour of popular Canada-based Punjabi singer Shubhneet Singh, who goes by the stage name Shubh, was cancelled on 20 September, Wednesday, amid uproar over sharing a purportedly distorted map of India earlier this year.
Ticketing platform BookMyShow said on X (formerly Twitter), "Singer Shubhneet Singh’s Still Rollin Tour for India stands cancelled. To that end, BookMyShow has initiated a complete refund of the ticket amount for all consumers who had purchased tickets for the show."
The singer, who rose to fame after songs like Cheques, We Rollin and Elevated, shared an Instagram story of a map of India where the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and parts of Northeast India were covered with a shadow and "Pray for Punjab" was written alongside it.
Moreover, the incident has come to light just a day after India-Canada tensions peaked due to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's comments around the involvement of agents of the Indian government in the murder of Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the expulsion of a top diplomats stationed in India and Canada by the other side.
On Tuesday, 19 September, graphic artist Amandeep Singh, who is the creator of the purportedly distorted map and uses the psydonym ‘Inkquisitive’, said on social media platform X that Shubh had shared his artwork.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Singh had clarified after being questioned by users on Instagram in March, when the image was first posted, and said that it was “not done intentionally to provoke any sort of separate state agenda”.
“It was a visual expression on a police man taking the plug out of Panjab due to the ‘blackout in Panjab’,” he said.
Just a day prior to Shubh's India tour getting cancelled, Indian electronics brand boAt, on 19 September, had announced that it would no longer sponsor Shubh's India concert, and said:
Shubh was scheduled to perform in Mumbai from 23 to 25 September as part of the Cordelia Cruise 'Cruise Control 4.0' event. He was also scheduled to perform in New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
In Mumbai, the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), had launched a protest against the singer and began removing posters promoting the concert.
BJYM President Tajinder Singh Tiwana told news agency ANI:
Reports also said that the BJYM submitted a memorandum to Mumbai's Commissioner of Police, demanding action against Shubh, the registration of an FIR and the cancellation of all his performances.
Several social media users have also pointed out that Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, who has often posted videos playing Shubh's music, unfollowed the singer on Instagram after the controversy. Many said that fellow cricketers KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya followed Kohli's footsteps.
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