Two rappers booked for songs ‘targeting govt’ in Maharashtra

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Police in western India’s Maharashtra state charged two rap artists for “anti-government” songs that highlighted corruption by politicians and the plight of the common people.

A First Information Report (FIR), generally the first step in any police investigation in India, was filed against rapper Umesh Khade, who goes by the name “Shambho” on YouTube and has 374,000 followers.

The FIR in Mumbai’s Wadala was filed following a complaint by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai police against Mr Khade’s song in Marathi language titled “Janta bhongli keli (You made citizens naked)” which became viral on social media, reported The Indian Express.

The song, which does not take any names, is about the sufferings of common people because of selfish politicians.

Sources told the outlet that a police team tracked down Mr Khade and produced him at the police station on Thursday night. He was later allowed to leave on the condition that he would join the police probe.

Mr Khade is believed to have said to the police that he had not named anyone in the song and only highlighted the plight of the people, the report added.

Police have charged him with sections including intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, promoting enmity, as well as publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form under the Information Technology Act 2000.

The action against Mr Khade came only days after police in Ambernath filed an FIR against another rapper Raj Mungase for a song that allegedly targeted the state chief minister Eknath Shinde’s faction of the ruling Shiv Sena.

Mr Mungase was picked up from Aurangabad by the police and brought to Ambernath in Thane district following a complaint filed by a Yuva Sena (youth wing of the Shiv Sena) core committee member.

The song titled “Chor” (thief) was uploaded on a YouTube channel called ”Bhimraj production” and talks about corrupt politicians.

It opens with the lyrics “Chor aale 50 khokhe gheun kiti bagha, chor aale…ekdum okay houn”, which translates to, “Look, the thieves have come with Rs 50 crore (around £4.9m). Look, the thieves look all fine,” reported The Wire.

While the song does not name any politician or party it hints at the allegations against Mr Shinde and the lawmakers of his government who broke away from the Shiv Sena last year and camped in resorts in Gujarat, Assam, and Goa which ultimately led to the division of the party into two factions and the collapse of the Congress, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s Mahavikas Aghadi government.

The breakaway faction subsequently aligned itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is currently in power in the state with Mr Shinde leading the coalition.

The breakaway lawmakers have been accused of taking bribes to jump camp which led to the downfall of the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s government.

Mr Mungase has been charged with defamation, promoting enmity and insult to provoke breach of peace.

Following the action against Mr Khade over the weekend, opposition lawmaker from the NCP Jitendra Ahwad lashed out at the Shinde government.

“There is nothing offensive in this song. He has not named anyone. He has spoken about his poverty in this song. Now if expressing your grievances is a crime, then arrest everyone who goes to work and vents their grievances on the train,” he said in a tweet.

“This is not a police state. We will not let freedom of expression in a democracy crush us like this. Leave Umesh Khade immediately,” he added.

In another tweet, Mr Ahwad said that both the rappers were let down by the constitution.