On Tuesday, Nepal Police took popular singer Durgesh Thapa in custody over his latest song ‘Happy Tihar, Chiso Beer’. Concerns rose over the derogatory lyrics – ‘Happy Tihar, Happy Tihar, Chiso Beer and some unfathomable relation to dons, and ganja’. Nepal Police asked him to delete the video from his channel for the charges to be dropped, and he complied.
Later, talking to the media, singer Thapa, who has recently risen to fame with the popular Teej song ‘Bicha Bichama’ said ‘online media hyped the situation unnecessarily’. Commenting on the situation he said ‘Sir haru le video delete garnu bhannu bhayo, maile gardiye’ (Sir (police) asked me to delete the video, and I did). Furthermore, he admits to making a mistake.
Meanwhile, as Tihar and its associated festivities of drinking and singing arrives, the Home Ministry has warned others of producing/singing similar derogatory content. They have asked “all to celebrate the Yama Panchak (Tihar) festival carrying national cultural identity and dignity, in a disciplined, dignified, civilized and frugal manner.”
“We request one and all not to produce, sing, broadcast, sell and distribute songs and music as well as audio-visual materials likely to have a harmful impact on society by undermining Nepali language, religion, culture and civilization,” Home Ministry spokesman Ram Krishna Subedi stated in a press release he issued today.
