Khalistani sympathiser and Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead near his village in Mansa on the 29th of May 2022. Since his death, his first song ‘SYL’ (Satluj Yamuna Link Canal) has been released which centers around the long-standing river water dispute between Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. The song has expectedly got a large number of views on YouTube having been released less than 4 weeks after Moosewala’s death.
As the Twitter user “The Hawk Eye” summarised on Twitter, the lyrics of the song glorified terrorists, provoked violence, and tried to fuel the fire of ‘self-determination’ for Punjab, talking about an independent Khalistan.
INC leader & singer Sidhu Moosewala’a last song “SYL” hits 16mn views in 20hrs. The lyrics & visuals are about disputed SYL Canal which dangerously provokes violence, glorifies terror!sm, & fuels the fire of ‘self-sovereignty’ in an already struggling nation with anarchism.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) June 24, 2022
1/ pic.twitter.com/2XKxCmWUrY
The song, in which Moosewala repeatedly says that forget water, we will not give even a drop of water to anyone, has problematic lyrics and visual imagery all the way through. Right at the start, Moosewala talks about giving Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh to Punjab. On 1st November 1966, post-independence Punjab was divided into 3 states, Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh on the basis of language.
Further, in the very next line, Moosewala says that after ‘returning’ Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to Punjab, complete sovereignty should be provided to Punjab else they will not give any water to anyone. This demand for sovereignty for a state is only a step short of demanding a separate Khalistan.
The song also goes on to warn that if there is no alternative way then Balwinder Jattana will return. Jattana was the terrorist who killed 2 senior engineers working on the SYL project in Chandigarh. Affiliated with Babbar Khalsa terrorist outfit, the Ropar resident Jattana killed Chief Engineer and the Superintending Engineer working on the SYL project in 1990. Following the murders, the construction on SYL stopped as the terrorised engineers refused to continue working on it. Jattana was later killed in a police encounter in 1991.
In the text on-screen during the song, Sidhu Moosewala goes on to call SYL canal the causative agent of the Congress-led pogrom of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984. The flag hoisting at Red Fort by a Sikh mob on 2021 Republic Day also finds a place in the video of the song. The video also shows a bomb blast on an animated canal, pushing the idea that violence should be used to stop SYL.
The song ends with Meghalaya Governor Satyapal Malik’s disturbing speech in which he said that one should not test Sikhs’ patience as they killed Indira Gandhi, General Vaidya in Pune, and General Dwyer in London.
