'Mahatma Gandhi was Father of Nation for Pakistan, not India': Abhijeet Bhattacharya's statement creates controversy

Playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, who once was the voice of Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan in film music, is back to doing what he does best: stirring up controversies. This time, the singer is on the radar for his comments on Mahatma Gandhi, who is known as one of the founding fathers of independent India.

The singer told Shubhankar Mishra on his podcast, "Music composer R. D. Burman was bigger than Mahatma Gandhi. Like Mahatma Gandhi was the father of the nation, R. D. Burman was the father of the nation in the world of music."

If this wasn’t enough, the singer went on to launch a more scathing attack on Gandhi as he called him the father of nation for Pakistan. "Mahatma Gandhi was the father of the nation for Pakistan and not India. India already existed, Pakistan was carved out of India later. Gandhi has been mistakenly called the father of nation for India. He was the one responsible behind the existence of Pakistan", he added.

Abhijeet Bhattacharya was launched by R. D. Burman in a Bengali film with a duet song with veteran singer Asha Bhosle. He did stage shows as a singer with R. D. Burman during the initial phase of his career. He has sung for Bollywood actors like Mithun Chakrabarty, Vijay Anand, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda, Akshaye Khanna, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Ajay Devgan, Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Chandrachur Singh, Bobby Deol, Jitendra Kumar and Jimmy Shergill.

In 1992, came Khiladi, in which he sang songs like Waada Raha Sanam, Khud Ko Kya Samajhti Hai, Kya Khabar Thi Jaana composed by Jatin-Lalit following this he gave many massive hits in the 90s.

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