Maturity over mob logic: What's behind BJP's surprise defence of Diljit Dosanjh?

India Today

30-06-2025

As boycott calls against singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh swirled across social media, few expected the BJP to come out in his defence. After all, it wasn't Opposition parties or liberal commentators attacking the global Punjabi superstar—it was his own fraternity.FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees), the influential film workers' body, had condemned Dosanjh. Singer Mika Singh had called him a 'fake singer' while singer B Praak implied that Dosanjh had sold his conscience. And in perhaps the most telling sign of discomfort, his Sardaar Ji 3 co-star, Canadian-Punjabi actor Neeru Bajwa, unfollowed Pakistani actress Hania Aamir and deleted all promotional posts related to the film.advertisementIn this atmosphere of cultural policing, the BJP Punjab unit's decision to hold a press conference in Chandigarh defending Dosanjh surprised many—and revealed far more than it concealed.The spark for the backlash was Sardaar Ji 3, a film shot largely in the UK before the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir that had prompted a strong military and diplomatic response from India against Pakistan. The film, which cast Dosanjh opposite Hania, who was making her Punjabi film debut, was released overseas but withheld from Indian cinemas. Yet that gesture did little to calm tempers.
The optics of a major Indian celebrity working alongside a Pakistani actress during a period of heightened military and political tensions with Islamabad became too much for a section of the Indian public, and outrage quickly spilled into calls for Dosanjh's citizenship to be revoked.advertisementWorse, Hania made provoking statements against India. Subsequently, the Instagram handles of Haina, Mahira Khan, Iqra Aziz, Ayeza Khan and several other Pakistani celebrities were blocked in India. The makers of the film also faced criticism.What followed was a rare moment in Indian cultural politics. Instead of letting the storm fester or joining the chorus of condemnation, BJP Sikh leaders in Delhi, such as R.P. Singh and others, along with former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) chief Manjit Singh GK, stepped forward to shield Dosanjh from the crossfire. 'Diljit is a global ambassador of Indian culture. The shooting for Sardaar Ji 3 took place before the Pahalgam attack. The call to cancel his citizenship is not only irrational but also politically motivated,' said R.P. Singh, senior BJP leader in Delhi and a party spokesperson.Manjit Singh GK went further, calling it a conspiracy to defame a successful Punjabi artiste. 'Just because some Pakistani artistes are promoting the film doesn't mean Diljit endorses them or their ideology,' he argued.What explains this unexpected intervention? First, Dosanjh occupies a unique space in India's cultural landscape. He's a Sikh icon with no separatist baggage, a global star whose reach extends from Chandigarh to California, and an artiste who has carefully maintained a line between activism and politics. For a BJP that is still trying to recover ground in Punjab after the bruising farmers' protests, attacking someone like Dosanjh would have risked deepening its disconnect with the state's moderate and urban Sikh middle class.advertisementSecond, the party seemed to sense that this was not a spontaneous outcry from the public but a backlash orchestrated by insiders in the entertainment ecosystem, driven perhaps by professional rivalry, politics of relevance, along with emotions nationalism. That many of the attacks came from prominent Punjabi voices—including Mika and B Praak—gave the controversy an emotional punch, but it also made the BJP's job easier.Instead of taking on the Pakistani actress for her anti-India remarks, the social media attack drifted towards Dosanjh. By positioning itself above the fray, the BJP could present itself as the adult in the room—measured, balanced and unwilling to throw an Indian artiste under the bus simply for optics.That calculation was especially important because the film itself had become a political football overseas. Pakistani actors, YouTubers, and diaspora-run Punjabi media portals based in Canada and the UK were openly promoting Sardaar Ji 3, even as it stayed off Indian screens. Pakistani authorities allowed the movie to be released there; reports suggest the film has done business to the tune of $500,000 (Rs 4.28 crore). For some in India, this added fuel to the theory that the film had become a tool of soft propaganda.advertisementThough Pakistan imposed a formal ban on Indian films in 2016, Punjabi-language cinema had quietly found a way in, particularly through 'unofficial' screenings in cities like Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi. Some recent reports reveal how, despite the ban, Indian Punjabi films continued to be screened in theatres across the border to full houses, albeit under the radar.Often booked under neutral category codes to avoid scrutiny, with Pakistani agencies deliberately looking the other way, these screenings gave Punjabi producers access to Pakistan's large Punjabi-speaking markets—without any accountability regarding content control or revenue flow. Incidentally, when film producers across India had stopped featuring Pakistani collaborators after the 2016 Uri attack, the Punjabi fraternity didn't, and eventually landed up in this controversy.To soothe tempers in India, Sardaar Ji 3 co-producer Gunbir Singh Sidhu has announced that he will not collaborate with Pakistani artistes in future. He also criticised Hania's comment on India's Operation Sindoor.advertisementHowever, BJP leaders have been careful not to conflate the promotional buzz with intent. 'We all oppose Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, but you cannot target an artiste based on assumptions about intent. The context matters,' said Hobby Dhaliwal, a BJP leader in Punjab and Punjabi actor backing Dosanjh.More broadly, the BJP's handling of the episode reflects a deeper shift in how the party is choosing to define nationalism in the cultural space. Unlike the zero-tolerance, hyper-nationalist tone that marked earlier debates around Pakistani artistes—especially after the 2016 Uri terror attack—the current response was more layered.There was no defence of Pakistan, no minimisation of its role in recent terror attacks, but there was also no attempt to punish an Indian artiste retroactively for a film shot in different geopolitical conditions. The message was clear: the state's ire is reserved for Pakistan the government and its terror proxies, not for every interaction across the border that pre-dated the current tensions.At a time when Punjab's political climate remains fragile—marked by economic distress, identity flux and diaspora-fuelled polarisation—the BJP appears to have made a conscious choice to back a figure seen as part of the cultural mainstream. Dosanjh's appeal cuts across class and generation; he is as comfortable performing at, say, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as he is at a village fair in Ludhiana. For the BJP, embracing such a figure offers a chance to project cultural openness without losing its nationalistic core.advertisementThe BJP leaders explain that defending Dosanjh was not just about protecting an individual artiste. It was about reclaiming the narrative from both ultra-nationalist zeal and self-defeating industry politics. The BJP's decision signals that nationalism need not always come with cancel culture attached—that in a complex, plural society, even global icons who occasionally share screen space with actors from across the border deserve the benefit of context.Sometimes, strategic silence may be misread as complicity, but a thoughtful defence can project strength. By standing with Diljit Dosanjh, the BJP made a calculated move of choosing strategy over sentiment and maturity over mob logic.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch