‘Jo Na Bole Jai Shri Ram, Usko Bhejo Kabristan’: Singer Varun Upadhyay, associates held

Newsroom, Jul 27: Controversial Bhojpuri singer Varun Upadhyay alias Varun Bahar, who came up with his new hate song, has been taken into custody along with three of his team members by the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow from his village Bandarha in Gonda.

The song ‘‘Jo Na Bole Jai Shri Ram, Usko Bhejo Kabristan” (Send those who do not chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to their graves), had gone viral soon after Varun uploaded on YouTube.

The police, which acted on several complaints, picked up singer Varun Bahar, writers Mukesh Pandey and Santosh Yadav, and Rajesh Kumar Verma, the owner of the YouTube channel Janta Musical and Pictures on which the video was uploaded.

The four have been arrested under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code.

“I’m a bhakt of Jai Shri Ram,” Bahar told the Huffington Post in a phone interview. “This is all about Hindutva. It is only about Hindutva.”

Bahar even released a statement on YouTube claiming that he sang the song out of love for Hinduism and that he saw nothing wrong in the sentiments expressed as the song does not mention a particular religion or section of the society.

“I have not taken the names of any religion here. Media is after my life and is not concerned about content on social media that is much more provocative and vulgar in nature,” he said, while calling upon the Hindu Yuva Vahini, Bajrang Dal and his “Hindu brothers” to help him.

But songwriter Santosh Kumar, who also makes an appearance alongside Bahar to defend their song, was not so contrite and blamed “anti-Ram elements” in the media for pushing for their arrest. He said the song was for the cause of Hindutva and for making India a ‘Ram Rajya’.

The music video includes images of a graveyard. ‘Kabristan’ is a reference to graveyards used by Christians and Muslims.

Verma said he deleted the video from his channel, which had 507,000 subscribers, on July 22. Apologising, he said that “our company will not launch such audio or video [in future]”.