Attack on Punjabi singer rattles industry, listeners

Chandigarh: The attack on the Punjabi singer Parmish Verma last week in Mohali near Chandigarh has rattled Punjabi music industry and music lovers alike.

Parmish shot to fame with the hit, Gaal ni kadni (Don’t abuse), that has been viewed 118 million times on YouTube. Released last year, the popularity of the song coincides with the state police’s crackdown on gangsters.

The 31-year-old singer was fired at while he was returning home after performing at a mall in Chandigarh. The assailants chased Parmish’s SUV and fired at the singer and his friend, Kulwant Singh Chahal. Parmish and Kulwant sustained injuries in the legs. The attack on singer was the result of not acceding to the extortion demands of gangsters, said police officials. No popular singer has reportedly come out with a complaint so far that he has received any threatening call for ransom.

Parmish is the son of Satish Kumar Verma, a former professor of Punjabi at Punjabi University, Patiala. His single, Shada, has got 27 million views on YouTube since its release three weeks ago. Parmish’s father has written songs for legendary Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan and is also a playwright and theatre director.

A day after the attack on the Punjabi singer, the district police arrested a person from Baddi in Himachal Pradesh near Chandigarh. Named Harvinder Singh, alias Happy (22), he is said to be close to gangster Dilpreet Singh who claimed responsibility for the crime in a Facebook post.

The police said they were looking for Dilpreet, known to be active in the Baddi area in Himachal Pradesh. Later, he was named in the FIR.

The SSP said that the police were ascertaining if Dilpreet was in the Hyundai Creta at the time of the attack on Parmish. Harvinder is studying for an LLB and his father is a schoolteacher.

Soon after the attack, members of another gang headed by Sampant Nehra also claimed responsibility, although police have focused their investigation on the Dilpreet Singh gang.

The crime has shocked the music industry as it is the first of its kind attack on any popular Punjabi singer since the militancy days in Punjab. In the 1980s, popular Punjabi singer Amar Singh Chamkila and his wife Amarjot were ambushed along with their band. During the same time, film star Dharmendra’s cousin Veerendra, a popular Punjabi actor, was also shot dead by unknown assailants. Whether they were killed by militants or jealous rivals —the whodunnit remained unsolved.

Coming to Parmish’s attack, it comes at a time when contemporary Punjabi songs are glorifying guns and revenge. Most of the artistes claim that it’s the record companies that ask them to work on such projects and their logic is that such songs appeal to the masses, resulting in their high sales figures.

In order to “counter” songs that propagate violence, drugs and vulgarity, the state government has recently announced the setting up of the Punjab Sabhyacharak Commission. The panel will be headed by the chief minister, with cultural minister Navjot Singh Sidhu as its vice-chairman and noted poet Surjit Patar as a select member. The commission will be empowered to recommend the registration of a police complaint if it finds the content of any song vulgar.