Sonu Nigam recently raised many eyebrows with his controversial statement against azaan and use of loudspeakers in mosque and temple. A petition was also filed against Nigam for criticising sermons and use of loudspeakers. The petition has been rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court called the petition a cheap attempt to gain publicity.
Slamming the petition the court further said that Azaan are the important part of Islamic worship but loudspeakers are not. In a candid conversation with IndiaTVNews.com, Sonu Nigam outlines the bigger picture. Here is the interview.
What were you thinking when you decided to call a press conference over the tweet?
When I tweeted It was early in the morning and I had just woken up, I was in my other house where the loudspeakers are on always...early in the morning specially. I felt I am a citizen of my country I am a known secular human being. I am not from any political party that anyone would judge me, I have not done anything in the past that shows that I am against a certain religion or for a certain religion. My idea of God is not confined to a religion, I feel religion and patriotism are two very reasons that have divided the people, I feel I am a humanitarian more. I am a human being, my spiritual conquest in life is predominant over the lose idea of God or Bhagwan or Allah. I felt that this was needed, I wanted to express my disapproval of usage of loudspeakers or electricity in the religion which are 2000 years old or 5000 years old, I feel the people have the right to sleep and there is a Supreme Court order, people are not following, they are not taking the comfort of the people seriously. This is not confined to a religion. Everybody who uses loudspeakers for religion to do propaganda about the religion. I feel they are thinking about the comfort of the rest of the people."
When asked if the tweet was impulsive, He said, "Life is an impulse, when you are thinking too much, you are planning, manipulating. I don't believe social media is 100% infallible. There are elements who use social media to troll people to bring them down, to abuse people left, right and centre. They forget a person is double your age, a senior or a 70-year-old man, they call names so I know I social media has its cons. But yes, since everybody is using social media for negative purposes, there are persons like me who use social media for positive consequences.
You have been quoted in the past saying Bollywood does not provide enough challenges as a musician. He said, "It's very simple. Do you get to hear any bhajans in the films these days? Have you heard of any ghazal lately? There aren't patriotic songs, you don't hear any nazm anymore. Most of the things are just the guitars or so-called sufi stuff. Not just me, most of the singers are just not utilized. Either there are club songs, party songs, vodka songs, daaru songs or Punjabi songs for films speaking the same thing. So there are lot of genres that are left untouched and I feel they are dying, we need to bring them up, make them wear new clothes, modernise. Indian music is becoming very one-track, not using enough genres.
