Sonu Nigam shaves head after azaan controversy

Sonu Nigam has reacted further to the controversy he sparked on Monday about loud azaan being played each morning from a mosque nearby to his house.

The singer shaved his head in response to a Kolkata-based cleric, who declared a Rs. 10 lakh reward if he shaved his hair and garland him with old shoes.

Nigam responded to this by saying, “I’ll shave my head in a while. It’s not a challenge. It’s a request. What are you doing in this country? I am a believer but I don’t think my religion is the best but yours isn’t. I don’t believe in that. You have to fight fanaticism, you can’t be quite.”

He added, “I have requested Alim to come. He will shave my head but it isn’t any agitation or challenge. The one who is cutting hair is a Muslim and I am a Hindu. There is no animosity. The same language of fatwa can be communicated in a language of love. Being secular means understanding each other’s problems and not saying ‘I am only right.’”

Talking about the controversy that has sparked that got religious leaders annoyed, he said, “Everyone has right to his opinion and I only spoke about loudspeakers. I spoke about a social issue, not any religion. I said it for temples, gurudwaras and mosques, why is it so hard to comprehend?”

He concluded, “I am very secular, I am not right or left wing. I stand in between. Most are right and left wing people but people in the middle are less. I’ve never had to make a speech like this. I just raised a social topic, not a religious topic. When loudspeakers are installed in religious places, it is sort of a declaration that ‘this is my religion’. Same goes for people dancing on roads drunk during religious processions. I am against that.”

Sonu Nigam gets his head shaved after a Fatwa was issued announcing 10 Lakhs for anyone who shaves Nigam's head pic.twitter.com/wWUZmnmb8N

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2017