Carnatic musician T M Krishna will perform in New Delhi on Saturday evening. In a tweet, the vocalist announced that he will be performing with RK Shriramkumar, Praveen Sparsh and Anirudh Athreya at Garden of Five Senses, Near Saket, New Delhi at 6.30 pm on Nov 17.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, making the announcement Friday, said no artist should ever be denied an opportunity to perform.
The AAP government had offered to host Krishna in the national capital after an event in which he was to perform was called off by Airports Authority of India (AAI- SPIC MACAY.)
The Airports Authority of India’s decision to postpone the event came after Internet trolls attacked the organiser for supporting an “anti-India” musician.
“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 had said.
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 troll army has the underlying patronage of people in power," he said. "I have been trolled for a long time for my social position, my perspectives on politics in India and my disagreements with the BJP regime… I believe in every art form… Allah, Jesus and Ram make no difference… It is a multi-lingual and multi-religious country," Mr Krishna said, a report said.
The Magsaysay Award winner first came to the attention of right-wing groups in August when an audio clip reportedly of his Carnatic songs on Allah and Jesus Christ was circulated on WhatsApp. A fringe group in Tamil Nadu had threatened him for singing the songs.
Born in Chennai, TM Krishna started learning music at the age of six and trained under several top musicians like Chingleput Ranganathan, Vidvan Seetharama Sarma and Semmangudi Srinivasier. An economics graduate from Madras University, he has authored three books — Voices Within: Carnatic Music – Passing on an Inheritance, A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story, and Reshaping Art.
