Morning Azaan disturbed his sleep and Sonu Nigam went on a rant

Singer tweets against forced religiousness and use of loudspeakers at religious places

Not everyone is having a great start to the week this Monday it seems. Sonu Nigam sure is one person who is not happy with being woken up early by loudspeakers blaring the Azaan from a mosque and his tweet has created the proverbial storm in the Indian Twitter cup.

At 5:25 am today morning, Sonu tweeted 

At last count the Tweet had been retweeted more than 2100 times and Twitter can’t stop dissing the use of loudspeakers at Mosques, Temples or for any religious function

But Sonu Nigam didn't just stop there

And no, he didn’t just single out Mosques for using loudspeakers

While some took offence at his tweets, others added that loudspeakers at all religious places were a problem and ought to be shut down.

The use of loudspeakers at religious places has often attracted public criticism with people even calling for a ban. They are often the reason for communal riots as well. In 2014, an Indian Express investigation found out that loudspeakers were the reason for a quarter of the nearly 400 riots preceding bypolls in 12 areas in UP. 

In 2015, the Supreme Court had refused to hear a PIL calling for a ban on the use of loudspeakers at all religious places. The bench comprising then Chief Justice H L Dattu and justices A K Sikri and R K Agrawal said had said “"There are directions in place. This court had given them”. The SC had banned the use of cone-shaped speakers in 2005 but the law had not been complied with in many places. In 2016, Madras HC had directed the state government to ensure that the 2005 ban on cone-shaped loudspeakers was implemented in the state. 

Is it time for the courts to relook at the issue? Well, perhaps Sonu could help them decide.