Culture recast in the new age of ‘likes’

Amarjot Kaur in Chandigarh

This is an age where “likes” are taken as a yardstick for popularity. So, YouTube videos dedicated to slain “sharp shooters” and Facebook photos of gangsters posing with 'asla' are swooned over by thousands of smartphone-savvy teenage boys. Even members of student unions in Punjab have not escaped. 

Here's an example: The Facebook page of Nabha jailbreak escapee Vicky Gounder is followed by 15,413 people. His arch nemesis, slain gangster Sukha Kahlwan has a fan-following of 12,336 on the website. 

There's even a video tribute to the baby-faced Kahlwan, an accused in 40 cases of murder, dacoity and robbery, on YouTube that has elicited 886,000 views since October 25, 2012. Its background score is a remixed Kuldip Manak song on the folklore of glorified dacoit Jiona Mod. The video is a slide show of photos in which Kahlwan poses with guns and his “brothers in arms”. 

Revenge Posts

The online platform is used to announce revenge killings too. When gangster-turned-politician Jaswinder Singh 'Rocky' was shot dead near Parwanoo on April 29 this year, Gounder declared in a Facebook post that the murder of his slain associate Shera Khuban had been avenged. The post got 2,600 likes and 46 shares. The 179 comments on it were a bunch of poorly punctuated Punjabi words of adulation written in English: “sirra laa ta”, “att”, “nyc”, “kaim”, and “end”.  

That the gangsters hold a considerable clout on Facebook also reflects in what happened after Gounder's post. Four other gangs claimed responsibility for the sensational murder - all on Facebook and with a response in the form of thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. Also, Gounder, Kulpreet, and Gurpreet Sekhon frequently share posts that support Shera Khuban Student Union (named after Gurshahid Singh alias Shera Khuban, a Ferozepur-based gangster who was gunned down by police in 2012).

Nabha network

A day before Gounder fled Nabha prison on November 27, along with now-arrested Khalistani militant Harminder Singh 'Mintoo' and four other gangsters, fellow escapee Gurpreet Singh Sekhon 'Mudki' posted a photo on Facebook with the caption: “Kaam aisa Kro K Naam Ho Jaye, warna naam aisa kro K, naam lete hi Kaam Ho Jaye. Jeonde Vasde Raho (Do what earns you fame. Else, become so influential that the job is done at the mention of your name. Live and let live.” 

It is yet not clear if it was actually posted by Mudki from inside the prison. But, in another reflection of how gangsters are glorified on social media, the photo elicited 1,000 likes.

New culture?

That Punjabi music, movies and folklore have encouraged violence, alcohol, and a culture of guns is no secret. If there have been poems dedicated to Jiona Mod, modern-day artists like Babbu Mann, Jazzy-B, Narvraj Hans, Dilpreet Dhillion, Honey Singh, and Punjaabi superstar Diljeet Dosanjh have hit songs that glorify guns, violence and an ill temper among Punjabi youth. 

Most recently, in September last year, a Punjabi film based on the life of slain gangster Rupinder Gandhi, titled 'Rupinder Gandhi The Gangster..?' was released and no sooner than that a student union named Gandhi Group Student Union was formed. “Most Punjabi songs and films compliment the gangster culture in Punjab, and male machismo through display of power and weapons. This century-long trend was dated way back to when they started eulogising gangsters like Daku Jagga, Sucha Soorma, and Jiona Mod,” Daljit Ami, a former journalist and documentary filmmaker, puts the social-media hype around the gangsters into context .