Barely a couple of hours after seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs led by Raghav Chadha announced their merger with the BJP, Balkaur Singh, father of slain Punjabi singer Moosewala, posted two lines on Facebook.
He offered no caption, no comment, no context as such. The lines, in Punjabi, were his son's verse from one of his last songs, ‘Scapegoat’: “Jo Raj Sabha hoeya, zimmvar dasso kaun? Hunn mainu loko oey gaddar dassso kaun?” — ‘Tell me who is responsible for what happened with the Rajya Sabha? Oh people, tell me now, who is the traitor?’
Below the lines, he gave attribution: “Written by Sidhu Moosewala, April 2022.”
The song ‘Scapegoat’ was released on April 11, 2022, with music by Mxrci and lyrics written by Moosewala himself. It has over 65 million views on YouTube as of April 24, 2026.
Also read | From just 2 MLAs to now six MPs: What Chadha-led rupture in AAP means for BJP in Punjab
‘Outsider’ argument
The song was released in the immediate aftermath of AAP's announcement of its Punjab Rajya Sabha nominations — a list that drew widespread criticism for including two non-Punjabis, Delhi-based Raghav Chadha and Chhattisgarh's Sandeep Pathak, alongside locals that included cricketer Harbhajan Singh and industrialists Ashok Kumar Mittal and Sanjeev Arora, who were seen as having limited political roots in the state.
Moosewala, who was murdered allegedly by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang on May 29, 2022, as a fallout of misplaced rivalries, had contested the February 2022 assembly elections on a Congress ticket from Mansa. He had lost to AAP's Dr Vijay Singla by a wide margin of 63,323 votes.
{{/usCountry}}Moosewala, who was murdered allegedly by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang on May 29, 2022, as a fallout of misplaced rivalries, had contested the February 2022 assembly elections on a Congress ticket from Mansa. He had lost to AAP's Dr Vijay Singla by a wide margin of 63,323 votes.
{{/usCountry}}The song ‘Scapegoat’ was among his creations that were directly political and thus gained attention even beyond his already large fanbase.
A 2023 redux
The Raghav Chadha switch was not the first time the lines had been deployed in a political context by his father.
In 2023, Balkaur Singh posted a reel on FB and Instagram based on ‘Scapegoat’ after Sandeep Pathak — one of the AAP MPs who defected on Friday — made statements suggesting that Haryana and Punjab should each get their rightful share of river water, a position widely seen in Punjab as conceding ground on the sensitive Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue.
At the time, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia also shared content using Moosewala's songs to attack AAP over the SYL issue, and the lines from ‘Scapegoat’ circulated widely as a shorthand charge of betrayal against the party. The AAP had said the statements were being misinterpreted.
Six of the seven MPs who defected on Friday are from Punjab — the same state where the AAP got a massive win in 2022 (92 of 117 MLAs), and sent sent Chadha, Pathak and others to Parliament in the first place. Chadha, ethnically a Punjabi but a Delhi boy otherwise, has repeatedly said Punjab is “my soul” and not just a political talking point for him. His joining the BJP, which has never won power on its own in Punjab, comes just 10 months before the next Vidhan Sabha elections.
‘Not mass leaders’
CM Bhagwant Mann insisted on Friday that Chadha and the others were “gaddar” or traitors of Punjab. He said they could not even win a village election and had been nominated as the party wanted to bring in diverse voices.
“There is no machine that can read minds. Tell me if there is… and if I can order one from Amazon!” Mann, a comic-turned-politician, remarked at a press conference in Chandigarh.
Kejriwal's first reaction was one line, a post on X saying the BJP had betrayed Punjabis.
Chadha said the AAP party is "no longer working for the country, but for personal gain”. He did not directly refer to corruption allegations related to the Delhi excise (liquor sales) policy case of 2023 in which Kejriwal and 22 others were recently discharged by a trial court.
Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said, "The AAP has no ideology. This was natural. These MPs have no relevance in Punjab. AAP should remain aware — their 50 MLAs might join the BJP next! Only the MPs have left the party for now.”