Krishna’s views on constitutional values like secularism and his attempts widening the reach of Carnatic music concert repertoire by including hymns in praise of Christ and Allah, and poems by writers including Perumal Murugan, have made him a target of right-wing attacks.
New Delhi: A concert by 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 online trolls who called for its boycott.
Krishna had re-tweeted AAI’s invitation on Monday, which triggered a spate of trolls who targeted the government body for sponsoring the concert. The tweets accused AAI of using public funds to sponsor Krishna, who sings about “Jesus and Allah”, is “anti-India”, a “converted bigot” and an “Urban Naxal”.
Soon after, the hashtag #DisinviteTMKrishna started doing rounds on Twitter.
The trolls also tagged senior functionaries in the government, including Minister of Railways, Coal and Corporate Affairs Piyush Goyal and Minister of Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu.
Krishna said he was even given assurances that the concert would go ahead as scheduled but it was cancelled without intimating him. “This is alarming. At least they could’ve come up with a better excuse to cancel my performance,” he told News18.
“Music fraternity is very timid and rarely do they take positions that are anti-establishment. I hope it changes culturally. We should be a country of artists who come together in supporting freedom,” he added.
AAI Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra has denied the allegations that suggest the concert was postponed due to the backlash received for inviting Krishna.
Krishna’s views on constitutional values like secularism and his attempts widening the reach of Carnatic music concert repertoire by including hymns in praise of Christ and Allah, and poems by writers including Perumal Murugan, have made him a target of right-wing attacks.
“The Nehru Park concert was a collaboration between Spic Macay and the Airports Authority of India. Till late last week, the AAI was enthusiastically tweeting about the event, and asking people to come. However, when they heard that T M Krishna was to sing there, right-wing trolls began abusing him, and demanded that the event be cancelled. These trolls know nothing about his music; all they know is that, in his work outside music, Krishna is a critic of Hindutva and the Modi government. On Tuesday the 13th, the AAI announced that the event had been indefinitely postponed. They had succumbed to pressure, most likely exercised from above as well as from below. Who knows what calls were made from which office to make the AAI act as they did. But, because of their shameful capitulation, the music lovers of Delhi shall be deprived not just of the sublime pleasure of listening to T M Krishna, but of the two-day festival as a whole. (The other artists slated to perform were the sitarist Shahid Parvez, and the dancers Sonal Mansingh and Priyadarshini Govind.)” wrote Ramachandra Guha, a historian who was not allowed to teach in an Ahmedabad university due to the same pressure.
“When, as happened to me in Ahmedabad, a scholar is prevented from speaking, that is intolerance. But to prevent a great musician from performing in the national capital is not mere intolerance — it is barbarism,” he 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,” TM Krishna said.
the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government on Tuesday vowed to hold his event in the national capital. The office of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has already contacted the singer and is working on a date for the event. CM Arvind Kejriwal also extended an invitation.
In August, a Maryland temple had cancelled his concert, allegedly after Hindutva activists accused him of singing Christian hymns. 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.