Nepali singer pulls corruption song from YouTube after threats

A popular Nepali folk singer says he removed a satirical song on corruption from YouTube after the youth wing of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) allegedly threatened him, local media reported on Monday.

Pashupati Sharma released a video of the song "Lutna Sake Lut, Nepal Mai Chha Chhut" (loot whatever you can, since that's allowed only in Nepal) over the weekend.

The song immediately struck a chord with the people angered by widespread corruption in the country. 

Many showed their support for the singer on Twitter where some denounced what they called the undemocratic approach of the ruling party.

View image on Twitter

Lochan Acharya@lochanofficial

The intolerance of ruling party CPN is vividly seen with its youth wing Yuwa Sangh circulating message to discard Pashupati Sharma (for uploading song that CPN doesn't like for no reason). What else can be more shameful than this in an open & democratic society?

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10:10 AM - Feb 16, 2019

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Others said the threats against the singer backfired, as the song is now receiving wider publicity. 

Sharma said he took the video down after he received threatening calls from members of the Youth Federation of Nepal, a student wing of the NCP.

"They objected to certain words of the song. So I removed it [from YouTube]. I will upload it after revision," he told a local radio station on Monday.

A day after the video was removed from the web, activists flocked in central Kathmandu and danced to the song on loudspeakers, local media reported.

The National Folk and Duet Song Academy Nepal held an emergency meeting on Sunday and released a statement.

"Expressing one's views is a right under the Freedom of Expression and we won't tolerate the infringement of that freedom," read the statement.

The current communist government has been accused of curtailing freedom of expression and increasing surveillance on social media users.