From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: While singers and dancers in Assam were cowed down by Rongali Bihu eve diktat from the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), anti-talks faction, not to perform either Hindi movie songs or dance numbers from Bollywood blockbusters in Rongali Bihu celebration functions across the State, prominent singer from the State Zubin Garg whose ‘Ya Ali ..’ number created sensation few years back in Bollywood, chose to defy the ULFA diktat.
For his brave action Garg has been warned by the ULFA anti-talks faction of confrontation that, it said, would have serious consequences if the singer did not change the way of promoting Hindi movie songs in Assam.
In a statement e-mailed to The Tribune the ULFA (anti-talks) faction led by fugitive leader Paresh Barua said that it has taken strong exception to Zubin Garg performing Hindi movie songs in a prominent Bihu function in the heart of Guwahati and would now onward consider him as the ambassador ‘culture from colonial India’ to Assam.
The ULFA stated that Garg’s action was uncalled for as all the other artistes in Assam refrained from performing Hindi songs this Bihu as wished by the ULFA.
The outfit warned that such an attitude from a prominent singer like Garg would lead to confrontation with the outfit in near future whose consequences may not be well.
The ULFA also rejected Garg’s comment, “Hindi is a national language of India and he likes Hindi too. So, he will sing in Hindi language,” saying that ‘Hindi is not a national language but official language of the Union’.
The ULFA faction in this regard also referred to ‘landmark judgement of Gujarat High Court in 2010 where in it was stated that ‘There is no national language in India.’
The ULFA pointed out that it has not yet banned Hindi language in Assam, but resorted to restrict performance of Hindi songs in Bihu functions to facilitate that traditional folk culture gets prominence during Bihu functions.
The ULFA claimed that its decision to impose the restriction was based on its ‘principle’ of preventing culture from ‘colonial India’ to overshadow the traditional folk culture in Assam. It said it was, however, yet to impose total ban on Hindi songs and movies in Assam.
Meanwhile, Zubeen said in the social media site Facebook that ULFA’s reaction was really sad as “when I sang Ya Ali everyone was overwhelmed but now when I sing it, they say I am wrong.”
Zubeen also announced that he would not sing at Bihu functions from next year as “no power can dictate an artist. We have our own freedom, my music speaks about love and brotherhood, some people never understood that but I will always live with my own freedom.” (With inputs from PTI)