TM Krishna award row: Carnatic singer-sisters Ranjani, Gayatri hit back at Music Academy

CHENNAI: It seems like the row over TM Krishna's Sangita Kalanidhi award is not ending anytime soon. On Monday, Carnatic vocalists Ranjani and Gayatri condemned a letter written by N Murali - the chief of the Madras Music Academy, to the sisters over their decision to withdraw their names from participating in the Music Academy's conference 2024.

Recently, the sisters declared that they will not attend the Academy's December annual music festival to protest against TM Krishna being awarded the Sangita Kalanidhi award. Excerpts from the letter read, "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. You are aware that the Sangita Kalanidhi award instituted by The Music Academy in 1942 is the highest accolade in Carnatic music. The choice of Sangita Kalanidhi made year after year is a prerogative of The Music Academy and has always been made after careful deliberation, with the sole criterion being musical excellence demonstrated over a significant and sustained career. This year, the Executive Committee of the Academy chose T.M. Krishna for this accolade based on his excellence in music over a long career, with no extraneous factors influencing our choice."

Now the sisters have reacted to Music Academy's letter. Taking to X, Ranjani and Gayatri wrote, "The Music Academy Chennai Dear Mr Murali, We thank you for the courtesy of providing a response to our letter dated 20 March 2024.We'd like to clarify that our letter to you was only a notification of our withdrawal without any request for your decisions or actions. We did not post the letter on social media, but merely informed our fans on the same subject. Now we realise, this didn't help you manage the optics and we are sorry about it. Did we question your prerogative to award anyone? No Did we exercise our prerogative to withdraw? Yes Did we refuse to be implicit apologists for genocide mongers and filthy discourse? Yes."

They further wrote, "With your verbose answer to questions we never raised, you are trying to build a convenient narrative and cast aspersions on us. Your statements to the press in this regard are immoral and dishonest. We were a bit surprised as to why your response reads like a release on behalf of the awardee, erasing the distinction between him and the Music Academy. But it became obvious when Mr. N. Ram, media hegemon, joined as an undeclared spokesperson, with his campaign branding us 'bigoted, casteist coterie'."

The sisters asked the academy to have more inclusivity in the executive committee. "We immensely respect this hallowed institution and it will be the happiest day for us and for millions of people to see star performers emerge from underprivileged communities and dominate this stage. We want to see the day when the TTK auditorium is filled up with a diverse inclusive crowd from all communities and religious minorities," they said.

"This transformation should begin at the top. Kindly start with the entrenched Executive Committee consisting of only brahmins and royalty you have been heading for 2 decades. Unlike serious hardwork and the long journey it takes for artists to excel, this transformation is achievable instantly with a simple resolution and a bunch of resignations. Please consider leading by example, lest the world call it mere lip service and start branding you as a 'bigoted, casteist coterie'," Ranjani and Gayatari wrote.

Ranjani and Gayatri accused TM Krishna of causing "immense damage to the Carnatic music world" and "willfully and happily" stomping over the sentiments of the music community. They also alleged that TM Krishna insulted most respected icons like Tyagaraja and MS Subbulakshmi. TM Krishna has often spoken out against conventional ideas of caste and gender politics in the existing Carnatic music system and has also been vocal about the non-inclusiveness of the famed December music season in Chennai, also known as the Marghazi season.

He had also started a music festival in the fishing village of Uroor-Olcott Kupppam.

An economics graduate, Krishna was a musical prodigy who started learning music from Bhagavathula Seetharama Sharma, followed by lessons from Carnatic vocalist Chingleput Ranganathan and Semmangudi Srinivas. Krishna is the grandnephew of former Indian finance minister TT Krishnamachari, who is among the founders of the Madras Music Academy.

According to a press release from the Music Academy, the Sangita Kalanidhi awardee will preside over the academic sessions of the 98th Annual Conference and Concerts of The Music Academy, to be held between December 15, 2024 and January 1, 2025.