Guwahati, April 18: Ya Ali, the song from Bollywood flim Gangster, which won Zubeen Garg a Filmfare nomination for best playback singer in 2007, has landed him on a confrontation course with the Paresh Barua group of Ulfa for defying its no-Hindi-song-on-Bihu-stage diktat.

The group, which had issued the diktat to local artistes and Bihu function organisers last week, today warned Zubeen, who sang the hit number in a Bihu cultural programme at Latasil here on Monday, of action if he continued to facilitate “Hindi invasion” in Assam.

“Zubeen Garg is a talented singer and we wish him to take Assam’s art and culture to the world stage. But instead of doing so, if he continues to aid Hindi aggression then the conflict could end in consequences which only time will tell, but which we sincerely do not want. Ulfa will not be responsible for the consequences,” a statement, issued to the media here by the group’s assistant information and publicity secretary Arunudoy Asom, said.

The group also condemned the organisers of the 60-year-old Bihu function at Latasil.

Zubeen told The Telegraph that he did not consider the Ulfa’s utterances a threat but found it “very funny”. “No organisation can dictate what an artiste should sing. I have worked very hard to establish myself as a singer in Mumbai and Assam should be proud of that. I don’t understand Ulfa’s logic of not allowing Hindi songs in Bihu functions. If people of Assam do not know or do not listen to my non-Assamese songs, particularly Hindi, it would be injustice to them. Ulfa should, instead, promote those talented singers from Assam who have been able to win accolades outside the state, especially in Bollywood,” he said.

Zubeen, who has sung over 15,000 songs in the 20 years of his music career, said he did not believe that only Assamese songs should be sung during Bihu. “One can sing good songs, whether in Hindi, Spanish, French or English.” He said he loved to sing Hindi songs, as it is the national language. “I am not going to be intimidated by the warning and will continue to perform according to people’s wishes. Ulfa has not given me money to make my albums. I have spent my hard-earned money to make those albums in different languages so that the people of India know that Assam has talent,” he said.

“If such atmosphere or mindsets continues, I may rethink about performing at Bihu functions,” he added.

The Ulfa statement further said, “Zubeen had a confrontation with Ulfa in the 90s when he acted irresponsibly during a Bihu function in Upper Assam and had then verbally promised not to dishonour the art and culture of Assam. But he has forgotten that incident for liquor, fame and the race to establish himself on the Indian stage.”

Police in Guwahati said they were reviewing the situation and would provide necessary security to the singer. “We will take all necessary steps,” senior superintendent of police (city) Anand Prakash Tiwari said.

Quoting chief minister Tarun Gogoi, his press adviser Bharat Chandra Narah told this correspondent that if required, security would be provided to the singer and the government would consider any security request made by Zubeen. Bihu is a symbol of unity and artistes play a big role in maintaining unity in society, Gogoi said.

The president of Guwahati Bihu Sanmilani at Latasil, Rana Goswami, said Zubeen sang Ya Ali on Monday after repeated requests. “We had invited Zubeen to sing Bihu songs and he entertained all. But his fans kept requesting him for Ya Ali. We don’t understand why Ulfa has condemned us. We request them to reconsider the statement.”