While Canada and India were engaged in a diplomatic row, another piece of news that grabbed headlines was the outrage against Canada-based singer and rapper Shubhneet Singh (Shubh).
The singer, who rose to fame after songs like Cheques, We Rollin and Elevated, was supposed to perform in 12 cities in India as a part of his 'Still Rollin Tour. On Wednesday, 20 September, ticketing platform BookMyShow said on X (formerly Twitter) that the Indian leg of the tour had been cancelled.
However, the artist's tour wasn't cancelled because of the tensions between the two countries but over an Instagram story shared in March.
In this story, we trace the the series of events that led us here.
The Story Behind the Instagram Story
During Punjab Police's crackdown to arrest "Waris Punjab De" leader and separatist leader Amritpal Singh in March, the state saw a shutdown of mobile internet services and the geoblocking of 122 X accounts, per the government's request.
Several Punjabi artists posted messages on social media during the month-long chase, with messages ranging from anger to safety and love for Punjab.
Singh (whose stage name is Shubh) was one of the artists who posted an Instagram story, along with Diljit Dosanjh, AP Dhillon, Tarsem Jassar, Sharry Maan and Himmat Sandhu.
The Canada-based rapper shared art by an artist called 'Inkquisitive' on 22 March, which showed a "distorted map" of India, with a policeman holding a power cord draped around it, hinting towards police excesses in the state, with the text "Pray for Punjab."
Inkquisitive, whose name is Amandeep Singh, had shared his art with a lengthy caption, talking about the impact of the internet and SMS blackout on laypeople. It now has over 70,000 likes.
Shubh had faced widespread backlash over the post back in March. Actor Kangana Ranaut had reportedly shared one such post on her Instagram story, taking a dig at Shubh with derogatory words and calling for legal action against him.
We came across posts that told people that Shubh had disrespected India by sharing the photo weeks after the tour's announcement.
The Outrage in September
The vocal opposition to Singh's tour began on 15 September – over a week before the event on 23 September – when Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) – the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) youth wing – Mumbai President Tajinder Singh Tiwana shared a post on X.
Tiwana issued a statement and a memorandum to the Mumbai Police and the organisers of the event, categorically stating that the Morcha would not allow the "traitor Canadian singer" to perform in the city.
Tiwana also shared screenshots of Shubh's Instagram stories.
While Tiwana's posts did not gain a lot of traction, the image of the map went viral, setting off the campaign against Shubh.
The Players Behind the Online Outrage
After BJYM's appeal, social media users began spreading the message and used the hashtag #UninstallBookMyShow on X, which trended on the platform, but saw fewer than a 1,000 posts on Facebook, some of which were related to Shubh.
On X, the hashtag was used in nearly 21,000 posts, as per Brandwatch, a social media monitoring tool.
The accounts which shared posts with this hashtag include Twitter Blue subscribers and Sudarshan News' editor Suresh Chavhanke, whose post had over 2.2 lakh views and had been reshared more than 2,400 times at the time of writing this story.
Another Twitter Blue subscriber with the handle 'moronhumor' shared two posts related to Shubh with this hashtag. The first one, shared on 18 September, went viral with nearly seven lakh views and 17,600 likes as on 22 September.
Their second post, which came the next day on 19 September, criticised BookMyShow for continuing to sell Shubh's tickets and was viewed more than two lakh times at the time of writing this report.
Posts using this hashtag amassed lakhs of views and reposts.
The term also saw several spikes in Google Search between 16 and 22 September.
Amid this growing call for cancellation, on 18 September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of playing a role in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan leader who was shot dead by unknown assailants in Surrey, Canada on 19 June.
This allegation – which India denied – started a diplomatic rift between the two countries, fuelling strong anti-Khalistan sentiments on social media.
Reports of cricketers Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya unfollowing Shubh's Instagram account emerged the same day, after which the event's sponsors also began pulling out.
However, this did not seem to have much of an impact on Shubh's followers.
The campaign began on 15 September and the account 'shubhworldwide' lost 11,149 followers the next day, according to SocialBlade.
However, throughout the calls to cancel his show, Shubh gained 2,98,464 followers on this account.
The Response From Brands and Sponsors
Tech company boAT announced that when they became aware of "the remarks made by artist Shubh earlier this year," they chose to withdraw their sponsorship from the tour.
After social media users started the hashtag "#UninstallBookMyShow" on X (formerly Twitter), the ticketing platform Book My Show, on 20 September, announced that the Indian leg of his concert tour had been cancelled.
Shubh's concert in Mumbai was going to be held on a cruise ship by Cordelia Cruise from 23 to 25 September. However, responding to BJYM's letter, its parent company Waterways Leisure Tourism said that the event was cancelled, mentioning that they did not "support any form on anti-national sentiment."
Video sharing app Moj, which is owned by messaging platform ShareChat, also announced that they would remove Shubh's music from their media library because "any artist propagating divisive content has no home on our platform."
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