‘Provocative’ song row: Supreme Court questions FIR against Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi

Noting that “it’s ultimately a poem”, the Supreme Court on Monday questioned the Gujarat Police for lodging an FIR against Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi for allegedly circulating an edited video featuring a ‘provocative’ song.

“It is not against any religion. This poem indirectly says even if somebody indulges in violence, we will not indulge in violence. That’s the message which the poem gives. It is not against any particular community,” the bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said.

“Please see the poem. The (High) Court has not appreciated the meaning of the poem. It’s ultimately a poem,” Justice Oka told advocate Swati Ghildiyal, who represented the state government.

The bench deferred the hearing by three weeks at the request of the Gujarat Government counsel. Please apply your mind to the poem. After all, creativity is also important,” Justice Oka told the state’s advocate.

Referring to the Gujarat High Court’s order rejecting Pratapgarhi’s petition to quash FIR, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, on behalf of the petitioner, said, “The judge has done violence to the law. That is my worry.”

The Supreme Court had on January 21 stayed the criminal proceedings against Congress MP booked for allegedly circulating an edited video featuring a provocative song.

It had also issued notice to the Gujarat Government and complainant Kishanbhai Deepakbhai Nanda on Pratapgarhi’s appeal. Pratapgarhi — the national chairman of the Congress’ minority cell — has challenged the January 17 order of the Gujarat High Court, which dismissed his petition for quashing the FIR filed against him saying the investigation was at a very nascent stage.

On January 3, Pratapgarhi was booked for the alleged provocative song during a mass marriage function he attended in Gujarat’s Jamnagar under Sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, etc.) and 197 (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the BNS.

The 46-second video clip, uploaded by Pratapgarhi on X, showed flower petals being showered at him as he walks waving his hands with a background song, the lyrics of which the FIR alleged were provocative, detrimental to national unity and hurting religious feelings.

In his plea to quash and set aside the FIR, the Congress leader claimed the poem being recited in the background carries “a message of love and non-violence”. He said the FIR was used as a tool to harass him and was lodged with a “malicious intent and malafide motives”.

The FIR was registered over an Instagram post featuring a video clip with the poem “Ae khoon ke pyase baat suno” running in the background.