Mansa: Punjabi singer and politician Sidhu Moose Wala garnered many fans in life, but he seems to have added to his following in death.
Moose Wala’s funeral at his village — Moosa in Punjab’s Mansa district — witnessed a massive gathering Tuesday. Hundreds had camped outside the singer’s mansion Monday night, with the size of the gathering swelling manifold when his body was brought to his residence from the Mansa civil hospital around 9am Tuesday.
By noon, the route connecting his palatial house with the cremation ground was choked. In the afternoon, Moose Wala’s body completed the last stretch of his final journey in a tractor, with the cremation finally taking place around 2.30pm.
Several visitors as well as government officials called the scale of the gathering “unprecedented”, even though the police and the district administration in Mansa could not immediately peg figures to gauge the size of it.
On Google Maps, his fans have geo-located his mansion as “Amar Legend Sidhu Moosewala Haveli”. But, not everyone at the funeral was even familiar with Moose Wala’s music.
One of the mourners, Gurdeep Singh of Barnala, by his own admission, had not watched any of Sidhu Moose Wala’s music videos until this Sunday — when the 28-year-old Punjabi singer was shot dead by unidentified assailants, and the incident became the subject of constant coverage on regional news channels.
“It is important to mark that I was there along with members of my pind (village) in his (Moose Wala’s) funeral,” Singh said, as the crowd around him chanted in unison: “Long live Sidhu brother”.
“This is the beginning of a change. It is important to mark participation in such events,” he added, even though he did not have a clear answer to what kind of change he expected to be triggered by Moose Wala’s killing, which the police in Punjab have dubbed the possible outcome of “inter-gang rivalry”.
However, for many, Moose Wala represented not just catchy Punjabi pop and videos championing gun culture (for which he had earned flak), but a political ally and a representative of the Jatt Sikh community.
Also Read: Sidhu Moose Wala’s killing planned ‘6 months ago’ but ‘bodyguards came in the way’
‘It’s the least we could do for him’
A large number of people at Moose Wala’s funeral were those who identified themselves as farmers.
Some said they considered Moose Wala an ally for his support to the movement aimed at rolling back three controversial farm laws passed in Parliament in September 2020. More than a year later, the laws were repealed due to pressure from farmers’ groups.
“He was there to support us when we had camped at Delhi’s borders protesting against the farm laws. Being with his family in such a moment of grief is the least we could do for him,” Karndeep Singh, a farmer from neighbouring district Bathinda, said as he paid his respects amid the crowd.
Then there were many who connected with Moose Wala not through his music or politics but solely because of his identity as a Jatt Sikh — a dominant land-owning caste in Punjab.
Moose Wala had a short music career of some three to four years, but he had a massive fan base in India and abroad. He had spent several years in Canada, but returned to Punjab last year and soon joined the Congress.
It is believed that he was given a ticket to contest the 2022 assembly polls by the Congress for his popularity as a prominent supporter of the farmers’ protest. It, however, did not materialise into electoral gains. In the state elections earlier this year, Moose Wala lost the Mansa assembly seat to AAP’s Vijay Singla.
A political controversy
Moose Wala was shot dead Sunday evening in Mansa district, a day after the Punjab Police partially withdrew the security of 424 people, including that of the singer.
These circumstances have triggered a political row, with the Congress, the Akalis and the BJP highlighting concerns about the law-and-order situation in Punjab and demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
While the Punjab Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra has said the murder seems to be a case of “inter-gang rivalry”, Moose Wala’s family is learnt to have dismissed the claim.
On Monday, the Punjab government urged the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to set up a panel headed by a sitting judge to probe into Moose Wala’s killing. According to sources in the Punjab government and the AAP, the request was sent to the chief justice under directions of CM Mann, who acceded to demands from Moose Wala’s family for a judicial probe, and in the light of public sentiments.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
Also Read: ‘Inspiration, immortal’ — Fans throng Moose Wala home with talk of revenge & a grim ‘premonition’
Source: The Print
