Guwahati, April 19: In a state that has normally accepted Ulfa diktats quite meekly, or has at best attempted to quietly ignore them as “just one of those”, singer Zubeen Garg last night took on the outfit with all the songs he had at his disposal, drawing from his quiver the choicest of Hindi songs that he defiantly shot at the militants.

“Moi Bongali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu sob gaam (I will sing in Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu everything),” he said on stage. “Moi iman phaltu concept loi jiyai nethako (I will not live with such a useless concept)”, he said, referring to Ulfa’s diktat that people will not sing in Hindi on stage during Bihu).

“I will sing, I will, I will. The more they stop me, the more I will sing in these languages. I will have to stop singing at the rate they are going. Maybe I should start a grocery store,” he told his audience that chanted “Hindi gaok, Hindi gaok (sing Hindi songs, sing Hindi songs)”.

“Maybe then I can just talk about how much of potatoes and onions I have sold,” he added.

Never has the state seen such a defiant stand against Ulfa, an outfit that has over the decades sent out numerous diktats, right from forced boycotts of functions such as Independence Day and Republic Day, to a stand against alcohol in the early days of the insurgency when Ulfa activists went about “punishing” drunks.

Years later, however, when large sections of them came overground, many of them became liquor store owners.

This Bihu, Ulfa had warned that artistes were not to perform Hindi songs or dance onstage in the state.

Performing at the New Guwahati Bihu Sanmilan, Zubeen followed up his declaration of defiance with a Bengali-Hindi duet with Zublee Barua that in its Hindi portion went “Soniye tu janiye tu, tere liye dil diwana”.

Then came a Namaste London song, “Dilruba dilnashi mehrooh mehzabi...pyar ye zordar hai”, followed by Ya Ali, his hit song from Hindi film Gangster. “Music cannot be boxed in by boundaries,” Zubeen, who danced constantly with his troupe clad in his now trademark ripped jeans, said.

Then came a Bengali song, Mon maane na.

Zublee, who was onstage in a traditional Assamese mekhela sador, asked for an ovation for Zubeen for the stand he had taken for and on music. It would have been more than just Zubeen that Ulfa would have to worry about now, going by last evening’s audience-appreciation index.

Openly aggressive against what the militants had said, the crowd was adamant that Zubeen sing in Hindi.

Regional satellite channels that had right through Bihu beamed performances by artistes across the state to people’s homes, last evening focused only on New Guwahati where Zubeen performed for well over three hours, the show ending well past 3 this morning.

For one, Zubeen, in a single stroke, seemed to have redeemed his image from the one of being a spoilt brat after his faux pas after he appeared at Bhupen Hazarika’s funeral two years ago dressed funny and almost disrespectful. Having got into a spat with the media after that for his behaviour, Zubeen later apologised to the people of the state on television. That, however, seemed to have become a part of the past for the singer. The media, last evening seemed to be as supportive as the audience at the New Guwahati Bihu function, television channels flashing his every move live as he defied Ulfa’s diktat. Ulfa had sent a mail to the media yesterday, warning “ZOO Bin” as they called him, that they would not be to blame for a showdown that could lead anywhere.

This followed Zubeen’s performance at Latasil Bihutoli in Guwahati on April 16, when he not only sang Hindi songs but also said that Hindi was the national language of India and so people should sing in it. Ulfa, in its release, said Hindi was not the national language of India and Zubeen was an “agent of Hindi aggression” in Assam.

Towards the end of the show in the wee hours today, Zubeen was picked up by his troupe on their shoulders, with the crowd cheering their hero of the day.