Ricky Kej condemns Madras Music Academy chief’s response to Ranjani-Gayatri: N Ravikiran, Vishakha Hari, Trichur Brothers and many more speak up against TM Krishna

On Thursday, three-time Grammy Award winner Indian music composer Ricky Kej condemned the attacking letter written by N Murali – the chief of the Madras Music Academy – to Carnatic musician sisters Ranjani and Gayatri. In this letter, N Murali said, “Dear Ms Ranjani and Ms Gayatri, I received your joint letter of 20th, March, 2024 and was shocked by both its vituperative content, which is replete with unwarranted and slanderous assertions and insinuations verging on defamation, and its vicious tone against a respected senior fellow-musician.” He added, “You are aware that the Sangita Kalanidhi award instituted by The Music Academy in 1942 is the highest accolade in Carnatic music. Composer Chitravina Ravikiran has declared that he is returning his Sangita Kalanidhi award from 2017 to mark his objection against TM Krishna and the Music Academy’s attempts to participate in promoting TM Krishna’s ideology. However I’ll always remain deeply grateful to the org for its role in my career from childhood 🙏#musicacademy #award #Music pic.twitter.com/EfXVtkUTns — Chitravina Ravikiran March 21, 2024 Though Ravikiran did not name TM Krishna directly, he wrote, “My decision stems from my inability to relate to the kind of values the academy is trying to glorify today, by honouring an individual who has stridently tried to polarize and destabilize Indian classical music and dance fields and the country as a whole along caste and communal lines through misinformation, malleable truths and unprovoked attacks against certain groups of people.” Who is TM Krishna?