Phoolan Devi killer hailed in new song

JALANDHAR: A glorifying reference to Phoolan Devi’s assassin, Sher Singh Rana, has drawn the latest number of Ranjit Bawa a lot of thumbs down from Punjabi netizens.
The comments praise the rest of Lovely Noor’s lyrics, “Kinne aaye kinne gaye”, except the part where Rana comes into the picture. Released on May 2, the Punjabi song has hit 76 lakh views on Bawa’s Youtube channel.
It glorifies Sikh warriors and mentions the ghallugharas (genocides) they faced. The video has images from Operation Blue Star and references to police encounters, farm protests, and sacrilege. For contrasting villains and heroes, there’s Ranga-Billa against Rana.
The contentious line goes: “Thaan thaan te ghumde aa Ranga Billa aam, per Sher Singh Rana jihe koee nee (Ranga Billas are dime a dozen but there’s none like Sher Singh Rana).”
It plays over the images of the three characters.
Artist Sarghi Kaur Barring posted on Facebook: “Did Sher Singh Rana achieve anything other than killing Phoolan Devi? He killed her because she killed 20 Thakurs complicit in her rape. If rape is a sin, how can Rana be a hero?”