Songs Promoting Gun Culture, Hooliganism Threaten Haryana's Booming Music Industry

A 2019 Punjab and Haryana High Court order prohibits media that promotes violence.

- NEERAJ MOHAN

Having emerged as a vibrant player in India's entertainment scene in a couple of years, the Haryanvi music industry finds itself at the crossroads as the Haryana government intensifies its crackdown on songs accused of promoting gun culture and hooliganism.

At the heart of this escalating controversy is Masoom Sharma, a 33-year-old Haryanvi pop sensation from Jind's Brahmanwas village, whose catchy tracks largely brandishing guns, operating gangs from inside the jails, promoting alcohol and hooliganism have made him a household name, earning crores of views on social media in the past couple of years.

But the state government's sudden crackdown with a ban on 10 such songs, including seven of Masoom Sharma—titled Tution Badmashi Ka, Gentlemen, Do-Dada, Pistol 4-5, Paipat Ki Ladai, 60 Mukadme, and Khatoa Jail Ke Bhittar—along with tracks by singers Ankit Balian and Narendra Bhagana, has sparked a political and social firestorm in Haryana, as the singer accused a "government officer", Gajendra Phogat, of adopting a selective approach against him while ignoring others who have made songs on similar themes and topics.