SYL taken off: Sidhu Moose Wala’s posthumous song banned in India

The latest release of slain Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu aka Sidhu Moose Wala, a song titled SYL, was blocked in India on Sunday.

The latest release of slain Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu aka Sidhu Moose Wala, a song titled SYL, was blocked in India on Sunday.

SYL (which refers to the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal) was taken off the video streaming platform, and instead a message, “This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government” is being displayed,” according to Times of India.

The song, released on Thursday, was trending on top and before being made unavailable, had crossed 27 million views and 3.3 million likes. Nearly 5 lakh had viewed the world premiere of the song, which was released after the gruesome killing of Moose Wala on May 29 at village Jawaharke.

The official YouTube page of the singer has 14.8 million subscribers.

The song was considered controversial as issues ranging from the killing of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the attack on the Golden Temple, and the release of Sikh prisoners was taken up in the video. Moose Wala had attacked the Aam Aadmi Party in the song, saying the “topi” was fighting with the turban.

The song had claimed that there is no water to be shared with any other state and had demanded sovereignty for Punjab and the “return” of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh to it. Many had also raised concerns over the hailing of pro-Khalistan outfit Babbar Khalsa figure Balwinder Singh Jattana.

However, many of Moose Wala’s fans expressed unhappiness over the song being taken down. “We wanted to hear the song but it has been banned which is not right. Everyone has the right to raise issues and governments should not interfere in it,” said Kewal Singh and Gurinder Singh.

Banning of the song on the day when Simranjit Singh Mann won the parliamentary by-election was another step-motherly step with Sikhs, said Harjinder Singh, an admirer of the deceased singer.

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