Protest-themed rap music is making a comeback in Kashmir – but don’t call its rappers “political.”
By
June 02, 2021
Ahmer Javaid (left) and Arif Farooq alias Qafilah (right) are among the rappers making up the hip-hop community of Kashmir.
Credit: Najmus Saqib
Advertisement
They may look like any other group of young men chilling out on a river bank. But these young men in a huddle are scripting the revival of rap music in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The narrow park along the Jhelum River in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, serves as a meeting place for five young musicians, all aged below 30, as they discuss the finer details to make their songs more attractive before releasing them on streaming platforms like YouTube and Amazon Music.
Many in the Valley are smelling political discrimination in the Jammu and Kashmir government’s vaccine distribution policy as BJP stronghold Jammu city has clocked nearly 100 per cent inoculation of the 45-plus population with the first dose while Srinagar city remains starved at 35 per cent.
While Jammu is the winter capital of the fledgling Union Territory, Srinagar is the summer capital.
The cries of bias have only got shriller after the administration of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha failed to administer even a single jab in Srinagar city in the past four days while Jammu city fared better with 14,714 jabs.
According to official figures on Sunday, Jammu had administered the first dose of anti-Covid vaccine to 5,63,880 people in the above-45 category, or 99.39 per cent of the total beneficiaries in this group.
J&K election authorities stir PoK questions telegraphindia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraphindia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.