“God bless everyone. I’m not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the Azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India”.
This tweet by a prominent Indian singer, Sonu Nigam, has take twitterati by storm in a country which has already witnessed a sharp religious divide in recent times.
Nigam, who has sung some of the biggest Bollywood hits in recent times, said also criticized the use of loudspeakers in temple and gurudwara.
God bless everyone. I'm not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the Azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India
— Sonu Nigam (@sonunigam) April 16, 2017
“I don’t believe in any temple or gurudwara using electricity To wake up people who don’t follow the religion. Why then..? Honest? True?” [sic], he tweeted.
Apparently, the singer didn’t just make a one-off remark and continued posting a series of controversial tweets leading to counter-messages accusing him of being “insensitive” and “derogatory”.
Sonu,we all get a lil noisy here!I live 5 minutes from u,I'm sure u hear item-songs blaring in the name of processions.Had to soundproof!?? https://t.co/P8NvIQ4m4s
— TheRichaChadha (@RichaChadha_) April 17, 2017
Nigam’s tweets received mixed response from fellow Bollywood artists. “I support what he has tweeted, not because he is a friend but because he is right. The law of the land is equal to all. People should be considerate towards each other. Be it Azaan or Hanuman Chalisa jaap or for any other religious practice, one must understand that noise pollution must be curtailed,” singer Shaan said.
Another singer, Baba Sehgal, called it a very sensitive issue. “I am a Sikh and I have many Muslim and Hindu friends, so I will never tweet something like this of course. Even if something is troubling me, I would take it in a positive stride. So I think that is his (Sonu Nigam) perspective that he wrote but definitely, it’s not a very positive tweet,” he is quoted by Hindustan Times to have said.
