India’s extremist organisation, Shiv Sena has called for the cancellation of Pakistan’s popular ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai.
Ghulam Ali, one of the most popular ghazal singers of Pakistan, was to perform at Mumbai city’s Shanmukhanad Hall on Friday while the hardliner party has called for the concert’s cancellation saying, “We can’t have cultural ties with Pakistan when they kill our soldiers.”
Earlier in April, the legendary ghazal singer held a concert at the famous Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency.
An invitation was sent to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi but he expressed his inability to attend the festival due to his busy schedule.
“I do wish I get the opportunity to attend such a programme in the future where so many well known artists will be enchanting the audience,” Modi said in a series of tweets on April 7.
“I must share that I have heard Ghulam Ali Sahab in the past that too in person,” Modi said in a tweet.
But later that month, pop artist Atif Aslam had to cancel his concert in Pune after having received threats from Shiv Sena at a time when more than a thousand tickets for his concert had been sold which the organisers had to refund.
Shiv Sena, a hardline outfit founded by the late Bal Thackeray, has in the past threatened Pakistani athletes to deter them from engaging in competitive sports in India.
Thackeray often referred to Indian Muslims as “anti-nationals” and called for Hindu suicide squads to counter what he saw as a rise in ‘Islamic terrorism’.
