Music and Politics

Music and Politics 

Herald Review November 9, 2014

Ali Aftab Saeed, journalist and member of Beygairat Brigade, Pakistan’s first political rock and roll band will be participating at the Goa Arts and Literary Festival next month.


LISA ANN MONTEIRO

In January 2011, Salman Taseer, senior member of the Pakistan People’s Party and governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province was shot at by his own bodyguard while getting into his car. The guard had told the police he killed Taseer because of his opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

Taseer had initiated a clemency petition for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

He had visited Bibi in jail and refused to succumb to rightist pressure on blasphemy.

Two months later Shabhaz Bhatti, a Catholic minister for religious minorities who worked to reform blasphemy laws and who also worked with Taseer on Bibi’s clemency move was also assassinated.

Taseer’s assassination in particular was a stimulant for three politically alive Pakistani youth who love music.

Ali Aftab Saeed, Hamza Malik and Daniyal Malik amalgamated their two interests, put together the band Beygairat Brigade ( dishonorable brigade) and released their first song ‘ Aalu Anday ’ ( Potatoes and Eggs) on YouTube the same year. It went viral.

The song featuring Ali on lead vocals, Hamza on the guitar and Daniyal on percussion takes jibes at religious conservatism and the military in Pakistan not sparing the army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and the extension he secured.

“ Where Ajmal Qasab is a hero most loyal, where the Mullah escaped in a veil, where Abdus Salam is a forgotten tale,” Ali sings. The Mullah refers to Maulana Abdul Aziz the cleric at Lal Masjid trying to escape wearing a burka in 2007 when the government laid siege to the mosque. Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani to win a Nobel Prize in physics for predicting the existence of the ‘ God particle’. He served as chief scientific adviser to the president and played a big role in setting up the country’s space agency and institute for nuclear science and technology.

He resigned from his post in protest and settled in Europe after an amendment in the constitution which declared that members of the Ahmadi sect ( to which he belonged) weren’t considered Muslims under Pakistani law.

The placards the band members hold up after the song are also filled with political satire. The last one reads ‘ if you want a bullet through my head like this video’ . And like it people did.

The band released ‘ Sab Paisay ki Game Hai’ last year poking fun at big moneyed politicians. The same year it released its third single ‘ Dhinak Dhinak’ , even more tongue in cheek than the first got banned soon after its release. The song speaks of proxy wars and army coups and lampoons generals. “ Proxy are the wars they fight to appease. In them is our men who are dead and deceased. Who will check these merry men? Who dares to stop them? My turn my turn is a politicians sport.

Generals don’t even compete, yet they win the fort,” Ali sings.

The song is considered groundbreaking as it is politicians who usually face the ire of comedians while the military is treated as the sacred cow.

The band had a tough time finding a studio to record the song. Most studio owners found the lyrics too bold.

One finally agreed but asked that his name be withheld from the credits.

Although banned, the clips of the song were aired by mainstream TV The band had a tough time finding a studio to record the song. Most studio owners found the lyrics too bold. One finally agreed but asked that his name be withheld from the credits.

Beygairat Brigade performing Aalu Anday with Ali on the vocals in the centre

and radio channels after the elections when the channels were evaluating the events that led to the 2013 elections.

“ The response we got for our songs made us realise that our opinions matter. It’s a great responsibility but so far it has been a good ride,” Ali says.

Friends and family frequently advise the group members to tread carefully but music and Pakistan are close to their heart. The youth today, Ali says are more engaged in politics. “ The media has played a very important role in this development. But on the other hand the young generation is somehow a victim of the media too by relying mostly on the information telecast by popular TV channels. That’s why we came up with the idea of a band that gives alternative opinion and the response so far has been beyond our expectation,” he says.

The band members face new challenges with each new song. “ Initially studios didn’t permit us recording songs that challenged the establishment but now since we are a popular band, we don’t fare this problem anymore. Now it’s all about finances.

Since I do it out of my own pocket, it’s all about how soon I save up enough from my day job to produce a song and a video,” Ali says.

The band has received offers of sponsorship but has declined these choosing to remain sincere to their music and audience. “ It’s about the impression more than anything else.

Even if the international companies or for that matter local financiers don’t influence our lyrical content, the impression made in front our audience that we took money and may have done it for profit, might cost us our credibility,” Ali says.

He will be visiting Goa for the first time to participate at the Goa Arts and Literary Festival early December but will not be performing as the band doesn’t do satire on Pakistani politics outside Pakistan. Ali has recently released a few non political songs as well. Review Bureau 

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