A concert by Magsaysay awardee Carnatic singer T.M. Krishna scheduled for Saturday was postponed by the organizers, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Spic Macay, allegedly after a tweet about the concert was attacked by a stream of comments calling for its boycott.
The social media attackers labeled Krishna as “anti-national”, “anti-Modi” and an “urban naxal”.
An unfazed Krishna, however, said: “Give me a stage anywhere in Delhi on November 17, I will come and sing. We just can’t let ourselves be cowed down by this kind of threats.”
The concert was supposed to be part of a two-day music festival, jointly organized by the AAI and the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC-MACAY).
“We would like to inform that due to some urgent engagements, ‘Dance and Music in the Park’ programme jointly organized by #AAI and @spicmacay, scheduled for 17th & 18th November 2018 has been postponed and new dates would be shared shortly. Inconvenience caused is regretted,” said the AAI in a tweet late Tuesday evening.
Though AAI cited ‘some exigencies of work’ as the reason for abruptly calling off the event, it is alleged that the decision was a result of trolls accusing AAI of supporting an ‘anti-India’ musician. The trolls hit out at the government body for using public funds to sponsor Krishna who was an ‘urban Naxal’ and a ‘converted bigot’ who sang about ‘Jesus and Allah’. The trolls had also tagged Union ministers Piyush Goel and Suresh Prabhu in their tweets.
The Carnatic musician has been on the receiving end of much flak and trolls for openly taking a stand against extreme ‘Hindutva’, and even caste prejudices. He has been targeted by Hindutva supporters for including ideas of secularism and caste prejudice in his music. Earlier, when Krishna, a Magsaysay award winner, was targetted by Hindu outfits for singing Christian hymns, he had responded by saying he would release a Carnatic song in praise of Jesus and Allah every month. After this in August, a Maryland temple had cancelled his concert.
This is the only previous occasion when people opposed to his political views managed to deny him a stage. However, a group of music lovers at Georgetown University in Washington organized his concert the same day (September 9) in the campus.
In January this year, a Hindu right-wing group had threatened to disrupt his concert in Tirupur, the textile town in western Tamil Nadu, but it was held under enhanced security. His attempts to increase the Carnatic music concert repertoire by including hymns in praise of Christ and Allah and poems by writers including Perumal Murugan have been attacked by Hindu right-wing activists.
Krishna, 42, is considered one of the finest among the current crop of Carnatic musicians. He is also the author of A Southern Music: The Karnatik Story.
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