Prime Minister Narendra Modi met singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh on New Year’s Day. Sharing photos from the meeting, the Prime Minister wrote, “Great interaction with Diljit Dosanjh! It is really versatile, combining talent and tradition. We are united by music, culture and more…
The singer also reciprocated his impressions of the meeting with the Prime Minister with a post on X (formally Twitter), by which he wrote: “Fantastic start to 2025. A really memorable meeting with Prime Minister @narendramodiJi. We talked about many things, including music, after all!”
The meeting took place within the backdrop of the recent controversy surrounding the singer’s social media post, which sparked the ‘Punjab vs Panjab’ debate. In a recent post on X, the singer shared a video of his arrival on the Chandigarh airport accompanied by the word ‘Panjab’.
Social media users accused him of deliberately omitting the Indian flag emoji from his post. In response to the accusations, Diljit rejected the allegations, which he called “conspiracy theories”.
“If the tricolor is omitted even once while mentioning Punjab in a tweet, it is called a conspiracy. Even the tweet about Bengaluru left it out once. If Punjab is written as Panjab, it is called conspiracy. Whether you write it as Panjab or Punjab… it will always remain Punjab (he wrote in Punjabi),” his post read.
Referring to its etymology, Diljit stated that the name comes from Persian and might be translated as “Land of Five Rivers” (panj means five and ab means water). He said spelling differences in English, the colonial language, didn’t change the identity of Punjab.
Earlier, the singer was embroiled in one other controversy for giving a present to a fan on stage at an event within the UK. After a fan told him that he was from Pakistan, the singer stated that he didn’t consider that borders divide people. According to him, borders between countries are what politicians want, not the residents of any country.
Meanwhile, Dosanjha’s New Year’s Eve concert in Ludhiana was overshadowed by a legal controversy following a proper criticism filed by Punditrao Dharenavar, an assistant professor from Chandigarh. The criticism prompted the Punjab Women and Child Welfare Department to intervene by issuing an official notice to the Ludhiana district commissioner to prevent Dosanjh from performing certain songs.
The singer had earlier faced similar criticism in other cities, including Hyderabad and Indore, for performing songs promoting alcohol and violence. Additionally, during a concert in Indore, Dosanjh addressed concerns about tickets for his shows being sold on the black market.
