Punjabi singer Shree Brar and many other artists marked the second Mahila Kisan Diwas of 2021 by releasing ‘Kisaan Anthem 2’ on March 8 to honour the farmers’ struggle that has continued for over 100 days against the three farm laws of the central government.

Although nearly double the length of the former songs, the new anthem praises the farmers’ movement and the contributions of women and men in continuing the protest months after its inception. According to the song’s teaser, these anthems are the singers’ way to voice his solidarity with agitating who are asserting their rights by opposing the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance & Farm Services Act, the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.

The latest song begins by condemning the Union government for allowing elderly farmers to suffer on the street and asserts that farmers will “win or lay down their lives” as an homage to the peasant’s peaceful resolve.

However, the song ends with Brar talking about the man who died on Republic Day and was taken back to his home shrouded in the national flag. The song ends while flashing the message “So far about 250 invited Veer Bhais have been martyred in this agitation and in some jails. It’s not going to stop until you all come together. Let’s unite in this movement and stop it,” in Punjabi.

Brar was one of the first artists to release a song for the on-going struggle following the mass protests in November 2020. The song soon became the most popular song about the protest. In January this year, the artist was arrested on the pretext of encouraging anti-police and gangster-like activities in the video for another previously released unrelated song. However, supporters of the farmers protest alleged that Brar was being punished for releasing the Kisan Anthem, a song that inspired people to express solidarity with farmers.

The ‘Kisaan Anthem’ released on December 8, 2020 showed visuals of the peaceful protest with farmers distributing langar among people. Meanwhile artists in the video such as Afsana Khan sang lyrics in front of placards that sported hashtags saying “Support Farmers.” Even then, Mankirt Aulakh, Nishawn Bhullar, Jass Bajwa, Jordan Sandhu, Fazilpuria, Dilpreet Dhillon, DJ Flow and Bobby Sandhu praised women farmers old and young for leaving their fields to support the farmers movement. The song also condemned mainstream media for failing to responsibly cover the farmers’ movement.

On February 23, 2021, singer Hassrat did a rendition of Punjabi poet Sant Ram Udasi’s poem ‘Delhi Dayala Vekh’ with images of the on-going struggle flashing in the back of the video.

Similarly, artist Sarkari released the ‘Kisan Anthem’ song on January 10, 2021 in anticipation of the farmers’ tractor parade on January 26. The three-minute song also showed visuals of a person matching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appearance being surrounded from all sides by people. The song mocked mainstream news media as the government’s “minions.”

Protest singer Poojan Sahil also released a rendition of the popular ‘Bella Ciao’ song and renamed it “Farm Laws Vapas Jao.” Regarding the song, Sahil wrote in the About section, “Farmers from Punjab, Haryana, UP and across India are protesting against the farm laws at Delhi Borders. This song is in solidarity with them… Bella ciao is an Italian protest folk song that originated in the hardships of the mondina women, the paddy field workers in the late 19th century who sang it to protest against harsh working conditions in the paddy fields of North Italy.”

Every month artists continue to come up with such songs to keep morale high. As the protest continues, farmer leaders state that they will not relent until the three laws are withdrawn and Minimum Support Price (MSP) is legalised in India.

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Punjabi singer and lyricist Shree Brar’s arrest for an older video of a pop song “Jaan” by Barbie Mann, is generating heat in Punjab’s political circles. In the video the fictional characters are seen brandishing guns, much like scores of masala Bollywood movies have always shown. However, the Patiala police clamped down on Brar on Tuesday January 5 and arrested him on the charges of promoting violence and gun culture in a song he had uploaded on social media in November last year.

According to The Tribune, Patiala SSP Vikramjeet Duggal said a case under Sections 294 (sings, recites or utters any obscene song), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the IPC had been registered against the singer, along with other artists in the song. Duggal was quoted saying that  the song “had been promoting gun culture in the youth.”

Now, the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) has alleged that Brar was “arrested and tortured by the state government on the directions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a punishment for writing the “Kisan Anthem”. According to news reports, YAD president Parambans Singh Romana said the singer had boosted the “kisan andolan” by penning a song that had become its unofficial anthem. The “Kisan Anthem” has since gone viral with over one crore views, and strongly speaks about the farmers movement, awareness of rights, and the unity now forged between the people of Haryana and Punjab. The ‘Kisan Anthem’ was sung by, Mankirt Aulakh, Nishawn Bhullar, Jass Bajwa, Jordan Sandhu, Fazilpuria, Dilpreet Dhillon, Dj Flow, Shree Brar, Afsana Khan, Bobby Sandhu, and was produced by Fateh Karan and Shree Brar.  It may be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNJiVuPmh9A

According to Romana this anthem inspired more people to join the movement, a fact that “was not liked by the Centre as well as the Home Ministry. This is why Shree Brar has been singled out for punishment with relation to another song he wrote a month ago.” In the controversial “Jaan”video, the fictional character played by the singer is shown to have ‘trespassed’ into Nabha police station in Patiala and ‘rescue’ an arrested accused by pointing a weapon at the duty officer. 

Meanwhile, the politics over the discussion seems to have heated up after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said the Punjabi singer’s arrest was “correct and justified”. The CM stated that promoting gangsterism and gun culture in this manner was absolutely wrong. The Tribune had reported that Patiala’s Senior Superintendent of Police Vikram Jeet Duggal had said Brar’s song “had provocative lyrics, promoting violence and antisocial acts to the extent of even providing shelter to criminals and encouraging jail breaks.” That song too had gone viral.

The CM said the case had been registered correctly in the matter which related to an old song and the arrest had no connection with the singer’s video in support of the protesting farmers. The TNS reported that the CM said Punjab faces threats from across the border, and “we will not allow the state’s peace to be disturbed in any manner” adding that such acts, referring to the contvercialsong, had the potential to do so. Brar had been arrested in Mohali near Chandigarh. The Tribune reported that “More raids are on to nab the other artists featuring in the same song.”

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