DigitEye India Fact Checkers
Amid the language row in Bengaluru over Hindi vs. Kannada, a new controversy erupted recently in which several major news outlets, including India Today, The Times of India, and The Economic Times, alleged that singer Sonu Nigam publicly took a dig at BJP MP Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru.
The news reports claimed that Sonu Nigam had responded sarcastically to Tejasvi Surya’s viral video calling for bank employees to communicate with local customers in Kannada.
सॉफ्टवेयर कंपनियों में भी कन्नड़ भाषा को अनिवार्य किया जाना चाहिए।
अगर अमेरिकी क्लाइंट्स को कर्नाटक में अपने प्रोजेक्ट्स करवाने हैं, तो उन्हें भी कन्नड़ में बात करनी चाहिए।
इस पर कोई समझौता नहीं होना चाहिए।
ठीक है @Tejasvi_Surya जी? Period. https://t.co/RO7THz69sm
— Sonu Nigam (@SonuNigamSingh) May 21, 2025
The news reports in major outlets, now deleted, further said that the singer allegedly objected to Kannada films being released nationwide and dubbed into Hindi, framing his response as a critique of linguistic double standards.
Some reports went even further, alleging that Nigam urged international clients of Bengaluru-based IT firms to also speak in Kannada, attributing this to comments made in posts on X, here and here.
FACT-CHECK
When Digiteye India team conducted a quick check, it turned out that the tweet was not by Sonu Nigam, the singer but by a lawyer named Sonu Nigam Singh, based in Bihar. In fact, Digiteye India debunked a similar claim when Sonu Nigam was targeted, and he later posted that he was not on the X platform.
He had officially exited the platform in 2017, stating that he was disillusioned by the toxicity and lack of respect for freedom of speech on the site. His move was widely reported at the time and remains a matter of public record.
However, major news outlets have surprisingly picked up the current story based on a tweet allegedly using a mistaken identity and it led to a flurry of inaccurate reporting, culminating in an article by The Times of India on May 22, 2025. The singer, furious at being misrepresented, posted on Instagram to set the record straight. Sharing a screenshot of the article, Sonu Nigam wrote:
“Times of India, are you out of your mind? How many times have I declared I am not on Twitter? Spreading misinformation in my name is only going to poison the minds of people who have loved me so much all these years.” He also included screenshots proving that the viral posts originated from the lawyer’s X account and not his own.
It’s worth noting that this is not the first time Sonu Nigam has been at the centre of a controversy involving Kannada language sentiments. Back in 2022, during a concert in Bengaluru held shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack, Nigam remarked that a young audience member had rudely demanded he sing in Kannada.
A video clip surfaced where he was heard saying, “…didn’t like it when the boy there, who is not even as old as my career, rudely threatened me to sing in Kannada…It is because of such behaviour that incidents like the Pahalgam attack happen.” This statement triggered massive backlash from local groups, with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce even announcing a non-cooperation campaign against him. An FIR was filed, and the case reached the Karnataka High Court, where Nigam was granted interim relief provided he cooperated with the investigation.
Just as this older controversy, the recent posts sought to drag him into the Kannada-bank officer controversy, but they are entirely fabricated and falsely reported by news outlets without fact-checking. The original author of the comments is a Bihar-based lawyer, not the renowned singer. Hence, the claim is false.
Claim: Singer Sonu Nigam attacked MP Tejasvi Surya on Kannada films and to make Kannada compulsory in IT firms.
Conclusion: Misrepresentation. Sonu Nigam exited X in 2017 and the tweet was posted by a Bihar-based lawyer Sonu Nigam Singh.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
