Organisers announce decision on Facebook; Krishna had been targeted by Hindu outfits in Tamil Nadu for singing Christian hymns.
Bengaluru: A prominent temple in the United States has cancelled a concert featuring noted Carnatic singer T.M. Krishna, a week after he, along with other prominent musicians, were the target of Hindu groups that had threatened them for singing Christian hymns.
The concert was to be held at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Maryland, one of the largest in the US, on 9 September. The organisers communicated the cancellation of the event on social media.
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“T.M. Krishna’s concert scheduled for September 9th is cancelled,” was the statement that the organisers put out on Facebook. They have not provided any reasons for the decision.
Krishna, a Magsaysay award winner, said he didn’t want to comment when reached by ThePrint.
‘A song on Allah, Christ every month’
Krishna had responded to the controversy by promising to release a Carnatic song on Allah and Jesus every month.
“As Carnatic musicians, we have fed these extreme Hindutva groups and we should learn to transcend them. We also need to break the monolithic idea that the RSS and the BJP are the custodians of Hindu culture. What they are doing is goondaism at its worst and we need to stop such bullying. That is why I said that I will release a song on Jesus and Allah every month. This is the best way to challenge them,” Krishna had told ThePrint then.
The row broke out after Ramanathan Seetharaman, self-proclaimed founder of the Coimbatore-based Hindu group, Rashtriya Sanathana Seva Sangam, targeted Krishna and vocalists O.S. Arun and Nithyashree Mahadevan, accusing them of promoting conversion through singing Christian hymns.
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It began after Arun announced that he was to participate in a Christian event, Yesuvin Sangama Sangeetham, scheduled for later this week. He subsequently pulled out of it.
Trolls target singer
Once the organisers put out the statement on Facebook, trolls on social media began to attack the singer. Many of the responses to the organisers’ statement lauded them for the decision.
“This is what we hoped for when we approached you through your Facebook page. All our time and energy is well worth it now. I can’t help but applaud your management team for their Dhārmic grounding by cancelling the concert of a patently Hinduphobic and Brahminphobic third-rate singer who thought he could mess around with our Thyagaraja Swami and Annamacharya,” reads one post.
“Very happy to hear this.. Hope sabhas in India follow this and boycott this individual,” reads another reply.