War of words: Singers Hans Raj Hans and Jasbir Jassi argue on social media

Deepkamal Kaur

Two prominent Punjabi singers, Hans Raj Hans and Jasbir Jassi, got into a spat on social media. It began when singer-cum-lyricist-performer Jassi expressed his reservations about singers performing at deras in Punjab. This clearly irked Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans, who heads Dera Lal Badshah in Nakodar and performs there regularly.

Hans, who is BJP MP from North West Delhi, was in Nakodar two days back and gave an interview to a media house in Jalandhar, wherein he hit back at Jassi saying, “I will tell Jassi to be careful about giving such statements. I warn him that he should think before he speaks and not create any hypotheses sitting at home. How can he say so when he has never been invited to perform at any durgah? It is just as if someone has not invited you for a wedding and that you say that you do not want to go.”

In response, Jassi has put a comment on the same post of the video interview saying, “Hans Raj Hans is a blessed singer. He has given a huge setback to the music industry by stepping into politics. He must only sing for the people and impart training in music.”

Reacting to the controversy, Hans told this reporter, “Jassi is just like my son Navraj. I, being a father figure for him, have just tried to correct him. He came to my village Shafipur to take training in music from me. I had guided him to go to Ustad Puran Shah Koti. If my son will say something wrong, I will definitely try to rectify his statement. I have not tried to offend him in any way.”