Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
Designed by: Mohsin Shaikh
Ahead of the start of Punjabi singer-rapper Shubh’s India Tour, electronics brand boAt has pulled back their sponsorship for the tour due to the rapper’s alleged support for Khalistan
In a post on X (Twitter), the company stated, “At boAt, while our commitment to the incredible music community runs deep, we are first & foremost a true Indian brand. Therefore, when we became aware of the remarks made by artist Shubh earlier this year, we chose to withdraw our sponsorship from the tour.”
Shubhneet Singh, known by his stage name ‘Shubh’, had earlier posted a distorted image of India’s map, which conspicuously omits the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and the North-Eastern states. He shared the image on his Instagram story and wrote, “Pray for Punjab.” He later deleted the image and replaced it with just the text “Pray for Punjab.”
The controversy over Canada-based Shubh comes at a time when the relations between India and Canada are going through a rough patch. Recently, the Canada PM Justin Trudeau alleged India’s involvement in the murder of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The pro-Khalistan leader was gunned down in Canada earlier in June
After the comments made by Justin Trudeau, the Canadian government expelled a senior Indian diplomat on Monday. India retaliated to this move by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat on Tuesday while also rejecting all the claims made by Trudeau
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the ruling BJP, opposed the upcoming performance of the rapper, who is set to headline the fest Cruise Control 4.0 in Mumbai from September 23 to 25 aboard the Cordelia Cruise. The chief of BJYM has demanded that action should be taken against the rapper otherwise the organisers of the event will have to face backlash
The youth wing of BJP demanded a cancellation of all the performances of Shubh and also registration of an FIR against the Punjabi rapper
The 26-year-old rapper Shubhneet Singh, known by his stage name Shubh, rose to fame two years ago with his breakthrough single ‘We Rollin’. The singer went on to score even bigger hits with ‘No Love’ and ‘Baller’. Shubh also released ‘Still Rollin’, the sequel to his first song
One of Shubh’s hits called ‘Elevated’ gained even more fame after ‘King Kohli’ grooved to the song in a video. Kohli even followed the singer on social media but has now unfollowed him due to the recent controversy. Other cricketers including KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya have also unfollowed the rapper
The controversy came to light days before Shubh was scheduled to start his three-month long ‘Still Rollin India Tour’, which covered 12 Indian cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. However, BookMyShow has now cancelled Shubh's India Tour and initiated a complete refund of the ticket amount for all consumers