Photo: Sunnya343 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Delhi Police on Thursday turned down permission for Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s concert at Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium on October 30, leaving the opening night of his Aura India Tour in doubt barely a week before it was due to take place.
What the police letter says
The refusal came in a letter from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South District, addressed to the ticketing platform BookMyShow, which had applied for the event on October 14. The letter said the request had been examined but could not be cleared, and gave three grounds: specific threat-related inputs, the heavy security and law-and-order duties of the ongoing festive season, and other unspecified law-and-order concerns.
In view of the specific threat-related inputs, coupled with the multifarious security and law & order commitments arising out of the ongoing festive season and other important law & order concerns, the same cannot be acceded to.
Letter from the DCP (South District) office to BookMyShow
The police have not said publicly what the threat inputs relate to. There was also no immediate announcement from the organisers on refunds for ticket holders or on a fresh date or venue for the Delhi show.
AAP questions the decision
The refusal quickly turned political. Saurabh Bharadwaj, Delhi unit chief of the Aam Aadmi Party, asked on X why the Delhi Police, which reports to the Centre, was blocking the show, and whether the move reflected a “deep rooted bias against progressive voices of Punjab”. He said the country’s youth loved the singer and called him another Punjab icon facing hurdles after singer Daler Mehndi, who was recently confronted on stage by an Uttarakhand minister at a fair in New Tehri.
Other AAP leaders, including Jarnail Singh, also reacted to the decision in comments to reporters.
Why the Delhi date mattered
The Delhi concert was first announced for November 1 and later brought forward to October 30. It was to launch the India leg of the Aura Tour, which is scheduled to move on to Indore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Lucknow, with a Chandigarh date still to be announced.
Dosanjh’s live shows have often drawn attention beyond the music. During his earlier Dil-Luminati tour he said India lacked proper infrastructure for large concerts and warned he would stop performing in the country until it improved, and his events have faced complaints over ticket prices and resale. In May, an unverified social media claim of shots fired outside the Karnal home of his manager set off a political row in Punjab, although Haryana Police said no complaint had been filed and nothing was recovered from the spot.
What happens next
The organisers can submit a fresh application or look at another date or venue, but any approval would again depend on the police’s security assessment. Until then, fans who bought tickets for October 30 are waiting for word from the organisers and the ticketing platform on what happens to their bookings.
