Asian Journal’s warnings came true
BY RATTAN MALL
A reader sent this photo of rows of empty seats at Paicfic Coliseum just after 8 p.m. when the show was supposed to have started.
PUNJABI singer Hans Raj Hans was a no-show at TOIFA’s April 4 musical extravaganza where the number of empty seats was staggering – just as Asian Journal had warned last week in our stories “TOIFA: Hans Raj Hans Faces Legal Problem In B.C.” and “How Many Empty Seats Will You See At TOIFA Events?”
Now many South Asians say they want compensation for having been “tricked” into buying tickets for a show that many felt was not worth attending – something that Asian Journal had warned people about four weeks ago in our March 8 story titled “South Asians Demand Refund After TOIFA Announces Lower Prices For Tickets For Musical Show.”
One of the TOIFA Musical Extravaganza performances on Thursday night at the Pacific Coliseum. Photo by Chandra Bodalia
Organizers were offering free tickets on Thursday evening in a desperate attempt to lure people to the Pacific Coliseum event.
A large section of the mainstream media has been deliberately concealing all these facts because of being “bribed” by lucrative TOIFA advertisement at the expense of the poor taxpayers!
So did TOIFA deliberately mislead South Asians about Hans Raj Hans as they were finding it hard to sell tickets or did Hans Raj Hans back out after the Asian Journal story on his legal problem was widely distributed?
(Meanwhile, there are also rumours in the South Asian community that quite a few who got visas to come to Canada to watch TOIFA are planning to stay on in this country and some have been approached immigration lawyers.)
Meanwhile, many South Asians feel insulted that even after assurances from TOIFA that an event would be staged in Surrey, nothing of the sort is taking place, thus highlighting the incompetence of the organizers.
No-show Hans Raj Hans
AS this newspaper reported last week, back in 2008, a local newspaper had reported that B.C. court records showed that the singer owed B.C. resident Jasbir Kaur Nijjar more than $130,000 from two loans she had given to him in 1998.
But Nijjar could not get the order enforced in Punjab and when she tried to get the money from Hans she found that he was too well connected.
Nijjar told the newspaper that Hans told her he was having financial problems and was being audited and so she lent him the money on the agreement that he would pay it back over two years with 20 per cent interest.
But after two years, all she received were excuses from him. Finally she took her case to the B.C. Provincial Court where the judge ruled in her favour.
But when she pursued the matter in Punjab she got the runaround that India is so notorious for. When she finally approached Sukhbir Singh Badal (who is now the deputy chief minister of Punjab), she was shocked to find that the case came to a halt six weeks later.
Nijjar alleged that Hans had either influenced or bought off politicians, the police and the Punjab media. She even reportedly received a threat from Hans through someone who knew him very well. The threat was that false charges would be brought against her and she would be thrown into jail if she went to Punjab.
Now it remains to be seen how many empty seats there will be at the main event on Saturday at B.C. Place. TOIFA organizers may have to give away free tickets once again!
