Sidhu Moosewala’s song SYL, which was released posthumously, is now no longer available on the video-sharing and streaming platform YouTube in India.
SYL was written and composed by Moosewala, who was shot dead on May 29. Nearly a month since his passing, the song was released by music producer MXRCI on Friday.
The song’s title refers to the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. The canal is of historical and political significance as it has been a bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana for several decades. The state of Punjab has been demanding a reassessment of its share of the water of the Ravi-Beas river while Haryana has been seeking completion of the canal to get its share. The late singer’s posthumously released song addresses this dispute.
The song also touches on controversial topics like undivided Punjab, the 1984 riots and the flag hoisting at the Red Fort during the farmer agitation.
Since its debut, SYL had amassed over 27 million views on the Google-owned platform and had received 3.3 million likes.
However, within two days of its release, the song was removed from YouTube India.
“Video unavailable. This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government,” reads the message displayed for the song on Moosewala’s official YouTube channel since Sunday. There are other channels which continue to share the SYL music video on YouTube but the platform has been cracking down on the channels by taking down the videos.
Moosewala, whose real name was Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa district last month. His murder is under investigation and several arrests have been made by Delhi Police in connection to the incident.
The late singer enjoyed a huge following in India and abroad with songs such as So High, Same Beef, The Last Ride and Just Listen.
Recently, his track 295 made it to the Billboard Global 200 Chart. The song was listed at the 154 spot earlier this month, while its viewership number on YouTube has gone past the 200 million mark.
