Music maestro Ilayaraja is known for his compositions that transcend time but the 78-year-old’s popularity across generations did not shield him from an online backlash over the weekend for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comparing him to Dr BR Ambedkar.
In the foreword for Ambedkar & Modi — Reformer’s Ideas, Performer’s Implementations, published by Delhi-based Bluecraft Digital Foundation, Ilayaraja wrote, “Both these striking personalities succeeded against odds that people from socially disempowered sections of the society face. Both saw poverty and stifling social structures from close quarters and worked to dismantle them, but both are also practical men who believe in action rather than mere thought exercises.”
Defending the music maestro, BJP state president K Annamalai said those upset with Ilayaraja were powerbrokers and claimed that the “ecosystem created by the DMK” in Tamil Nadu would not be able to throttle the composer’s voice.
“What crime did Ilayaraja commit?” asked former state BJP chief and Union minister L Murugan, adding that the “DMK-led attacks” were anti-Dalit and anti-Constitutional as the Constitution ensures freedom of speech.
Actor-Politician Vijayakant came in support of Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja who has been making headlines for the past few days. Vijayakant tweeted with a letterhead, “It is a great honor to accept Ilaiyaraaja’s opinion with the lofty aim of personal opinion & freedom of expression and not to criticise and hurt his sentiments.”
The statement made by Ilaiyaraaja has already evoked huge controversy around him and recently, his son-composer Yuvan Shankar Raja even posted a picture of himself contradicting his father’s statement and captioned the post, ‘Dark Dravidian – Proud Tamizhan’.
Reacting to this, TN BJP president K Annamalai said, “If Yuvan is dark, then he (Annamalai) is much darker like a jungle crow and that he too is a pure Dravidian.”
Yuvan’s Instagram post and Ilayaraja’s comments follow Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent speech in which he said that Hindi must be made the national language and that people from non-Hindi speaking states should converse in Hindi instead of English.
His letter read, “BR Ambedkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and musician Ilaiyaraaja were born in an ordinary family and today they are role models for everyone in the industry. One sun, one moon and that goes same for anyone here. They cannot be compared to anyone, they are equal for them only.” He also added that the statement from the musician should be a taken as a personal opinion in the aspect of freedom of speech and shouldn’t be futher criticised and not hurt his sentiments.
The statement made by Ilaiyaraaja has already evoked huge controversy around him and recently, his son-composer Yuvan Shankar Raja even posted a picture of himself contradicting his father’s statement and captioned the post, ‘Dark Dravidian – Proud Tamizhan’.
Reacting to this, TN BJP president K Annamalai said, “If Yuvan is dark, then he (Annamalai) is much darker like a jungle crow and that he too is a pure Dravidian.”
Yuvan’s Instagram post and Ilayaraja’s comments follow Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent speech in which he said that Hindi must be made the national language and that people from non-Hindi speaking states should converse in Hindi instead of English.
