Excise department cancels alcohol permit for Diljit Dosanjh’s Pune concert

The Maharashtra excise department cancelled a permit to serve alcohol during Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s Dil-Luminati concert in Pune on Sunday evening.
“The state excise department has cancelled the permission to serve liquor during the programme,” state excise commissioner C Rajput was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Earlier, several right-wing groups and political leaders, including newly-elected BJP MLA from Kothrud Chandrakant Patil, opposed Dosanjh’s concert, which is being held at Kakade Ground in Kothrud.
Patil said that such events were “against the culture of Pune” and shouldn’t be allowed to take place.
“Such shows are not part of the city’s culture. This will create a major disturbance for residents of the area. The event will also cause traffic jams. Hence, I have urged the city police commissioner to cancel the programme,” the newly-elected BJP MLA said in a statement.
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP has also opposed the concert. The party’s youth wing, NCP Youth Congress, threatened to protest against the event. However, the police granted permission for the event to proceed as scheduled.
The singer has faced criticism in recent days for allegedly promoting alcoholism and gun violence in his songs.
Earlier, the Telangana government had issued a notice to the 40-year-old singer a day ahead of his concert in Hyderabad on November 15, directing him to avoid performing any songs that promote alcohol, drugs or violence, citing past instances where similar songs were part of his performance.
Dosanjh had responded to the Telangana government’s criticism at his concert in Ahmedabad on November 17 and said that if they want him to stop mentioning alcohol in his numbers, they need to ban liquor everywhere in the country.