A concert jointly organised by Airport Authority of India (AAI) and SPIC-MACAY in Delhi scheduled on November 17 has been cancelled, due to criticism from right-wing trolls over the participation of Carnatic singer TM Krishna.
This is the second concert involving Krishna that has been called off. Earlier this year, a temple in the US cancelled Krishna’s programme following attacks from Hindutva trolls on a few Carnatic musicians for allegedly encouraging conversions through their renditions of Christian hymns.
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Krishna’s concert was to be part of a two-day ‘Dance and Music in the Park’ festival at Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri.
We would like to inform that due to some urgent engagements, ‘Dance and Music in the Park’ programme jointly organized by #AAI and @spicmacay, scheduled for 17th & 18th November, 2018 has been postponed and new dates would be shared shortly. Inconvenience caused is regretted.
— Airports Authority of India (@AAI_Official) November 14, 2018
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Krishna’s participation was announced on November 10. However, late on Tuesday night, cultural body SPIC-MACAY was informed by an email that the concert had been called off.
The Airport Authority of India (AAI) also tweeted stating that the programme has been postponed due to some urgent engagements.
On social media, trolls accused AAI of using public funds to sponsor Krishna, and said he sings about ‘Jesus and Allah’, is ‘anti-India’, a ‘converted bigot’ and an ‘Urban Naxal’ among other things.
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Krishna told The Print, “I am not surprised about this (cancellation). The fact that we are living in a country where this kind of behaviour is becoming very common is something that we should all be very worried about.”
Krishna said there had been several other programmes featuring him where the organisers stood their ground despite receiving threat calls. However, he added, the cancellation of an “event of this scale” organised by the AAI had “definitely created a sense of apprehension among performing artists”.
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