GUNS, JUTTS, GLORY

The hollow cult of Sidhu Moose Wala

- SHIV INDER SINGH

LIKE HIS IDOL, the pioneering gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur, the Punjabi rapper and politician Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu—better known as Sidhu Moose Wala—was shot dead in the front seat of his car. On 29 May, Sidhu left his home in the village of Moosa, in Punjab’s Mansa district, driving a Mahindra Thar SUV. A day earlier, the Punjab government had reduced the number of security personnel assigned to the 28-year-old from four to two, though none of them were with him when he was killed. When he arrived at Jawaharke, a village on the outskirts of Mansa, unknown assailants surrounded the car and opened fire with automatic weapons. According to two others in the car, Sidhu fired back with a pistol but could not fend off the assassins. Around two dozen bullets hit his head, legs, abdomen and chest, entering his lungs and his liver. He died on the spot.

Sidhu had foreshadowed his own death—or so his fans claimed. They were quick to note that the date of his murder, 29 May, echoed the title of one of his most famous songs, “295.” They noted that, in another song, eerily titled “The Last Ride,” Sidhu had sung, “Ho chobbar de chehre utte noor dasda/ Ni, ehda uthuga jawani’ch janaza mithiye”—That glow on the young man’s face says he will be laid to rest in his youth. His latest album, Moosetape, contained several references to dying young and the constant threat of being gunned down. These seemingly symbolic coincidences and a dramatic shooting added a halo of greatness around Sidhu, bolstering his legacy as an icon.