Popular Punjabi singer Diler Mehndi found himself at the center of a new scandal during his appearance at the famous Kunjapuri fair in Narendra Nagar town, which is part of the Tihri district in Uttarakhand state. He was performing on stage, entertaining the gathered audience.
The situation escalated when Subodh Uniyal, a cabinet minister and MLA from Narendra Nagar, approached the stage. The minister expressed his disapproval of Diler Mehndi singing while under the influence of alcohol and demanded that the program be stopped mid-event. The minister publicly reprimanded the singer.
Subodh Uniyal, a minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stated on stage that the event was a religious gathering dedicated to the worship of Mother Durga and the celebration of Navratri. He emphasized that a performance while intoxicated during such a sacred period was inappropriate. Uniyal criticized the singer, saying that singing while drunk was not good, and asked, 'Can't you stop when I ask you to? What are you going to sing?' He added that the artist should respect the stage and noted that the singer had drunk too much to understand speech. The minister also mentioned that they had paid a significant sum for people to have entertainment, but the singer was deceiving them.
The minister urged Diler Mehndi to maintain dignity and respect the boundaries of the religious event. Following this incident, the topic became a subject of discussion in the region. Some people supported the minister's intervention from the perspective of preserving the decorum of the religious event. Most notable, however, was Diler Mehndi's reaction: while the minister was reprimanding him, the singer stood silently. The singer spoke with slurred words due to intoxication, and his condition was so poor that he could not utter a single coherent word. Seeing that the singer was heavily intoxicated, the minister became very angry. Videos of Diler Mehndi being intoxicated during a live performance quickly spread online, and users began trolling him for such behavior.
The Kunjapuri fair is an important center of religious faith and cultural traditions. Consequently, the issue of finding a balance between faith, traditions, and cultural programs during religious events has been raised again.