Incident Reports

Activists turn up the speakers and dance to Sharma’s “Lutna Sake Lut” at Maitighar

2019-02-17

Bagmati, Kathmandu, Kathmandu

A day after folk singer Pashupati Sharma was forced by ruling party cadres to pull down his controversial song “Lutna Sake Lut” from Youtube, activists flocked at Maitighar Mandala and danced to the song on loud speakers.

Youths, who gathered at Mandala and shouted slogans protesting ruling party’s intervention, have termed the government’s intolerance to criticism as the return of Panchayat System.

“Instead of curbing down corruption, the government has taken counter productive measures forcing the artist to pull down a song that has carried strong anti-corruption messages,” an activist said, “We are in protest against the government’s intolerance to facts.”

Earlier, only few hours after the release of the song, Youth Federation Nepal, ruling party’s youth wing, issued a statement warning Sharma of thwarting his career. In response, Sharma took it to Facebook and announced that he had taken the song down from Youtube for re-editing purposes saying that some words might have offended his well-wishers.

Meanwhile, folk singer Kulendra BK expressed solidarity with Sharma and said that the latter’s song has portrayed corruption prevailing in the country and tried to raise awareness against it.

“Small artists like us should not be snatched of our rights to create content and disseminate it,” BK said, “However, artists must be careful only if their content promotes negativity. And I do not feel Sharma sang it to stir negativity.”

Likewise a meeting of the National Folk and Duet Song Academy has requested Sharma to re-upload the video as it is.

“It is not acceptable that the words and meaning of the lyrics are allowed to surface in articles and media but not in songs,” the academy said in a statement.

Details and Impacts
Violent / Non-violent Nonviolent
Primary Form Demonstration
Primary Cause Issues related to freedom of expression and civil rights
Secondary Cause Freedom of Expression
Actor 1 - Number of people N
Actor 1 - Affiliations Citizen/Individuals
Actor 1 - Youth unknown
Actor 2 - Number of people N
Actor 2 - Affiliation (Target) Government and civil servants at central level
Actor 2 - Youth na
National/Online Media

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