T M Krishna Award Row: Madras Music Academy Called Out For Letter Attacking Ranjani, Gayatri For Withdrawing

After world-renowned Carnatic vocalists Ranjani and Gayatri announced their withdrawal from participating in the Music Academy’s conference 2024, Madras Music Academy hit out at them on Thursday (21 March).

The Academy's president N Murali said that the Vidushi sisters' announcement had "vituperative content with unwarranted and slanderous assertions and insinuations on the verge of defamation."

This comes as the Vidushi sisters had accused T M Krishna of causing "immense damage to the Carnatic music world" and "willfully and happily" stomping over the sentiments of the music community.

Three-time Grammy Award winner Rickey Kej called out the Academy's letter for its "arrogance, hatred and superiority."

"It hurts especially when directed against such amazing souls like Ranjani and Gayatri. I personally feel this letter is quite unbecoming of such a prestigious art institution," Kej posted on X.

The controversy began when Music Academy announced the name of the polemical T M Krishna as the winner of this year's Sangita Kalanidhi, a prestigious award that it bestows on Carnatic musicians.

However, the academy believes that the withdrawal of the Vidushi sisters over T M Krishna getting the award is "unbecoming of artistes." It raised doubts over the purpose and intentions of their letter.

The controversy took a political turn when DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi jumped in by supporting T M Krishna and said, "The hate he is receiving for his social beliefs or his engagement with Periyar is uncalled for."

These remarks are in the backdrop of Ranjani and Gayatri's statement that "It is dangerous to overlook Mr T M Krishna’s glorification of a figure like EVR."

They criticised EVR for openly proposing a genocide of ‘brahmins’, repeatedly calling/abusing every woman of this community with "vile profanity" and relentlessly working to "normalise filthy language in social discourse."