Carnatic vocalists Ranjani-Gayatri and Harikatha exponent Dushyanth Sridhar marked their protest by withdrawing from the Music Academy Conference 2024. They citied withdrawal after the Music Academy honoured TM Krishna with Sangita Kalanidhi award earlier this week.
The musician duo Ranjani and Gayatri announced on X (formerly Twitter) that they will not be performing at the concert scheduled to happen on December 25 and also their decision to withdraw from participating in Music Academy’s Conference as TM Krishna would preside it.
“He has caused immense damage to the Carnatic music world, wilfully and happily stomped over the sentiments of this community and insulted most respected icons like Tyagaraja and MS Subbulakshmi. It is dangerous to overlook TM Krishna’s glorification of a figure like EVR (Periyar) who openly proposed a genocide of Brahmins, repeatedly called/ abused every woman of this community with vile profanity, relentlessly worked to normalise filthy language in social discourse (sic)”, stated Ranjani and Gayatri in their statement.
Similarly, renowned Vedic speaker Dushyanth Sridhar had written a letter to President of Music Academy stating that he wishes to withdraw from performing on January 1 as it would be disrespectful to his Gurus’ to perform immediately after TM Krishna is awarded.
Similarly, vocalist and Harikatha exponent Vishakha Hari , in her post on Instagram wrote, “This year’s Sangeetha Kalanidhi designate awardee has engaged in a lot of slandering previously, hurting the sentiments of many tremendously and willfully (sic).”
Meanwhile, National award-winner and singer Chinmayi Sripada has come in support of TM Krishna and congratulated him on getting the award. She also raised some important questions to Ranjani and Gayatri.
On March 18, TM Krishna shared a thank-you note after being honoured with the Sangita Kalanidhi for the year 2024.
Here’s his post:
The Music Academy and TM Krishna are yet to react to this ongoing controversy.
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