The Airports Authority of India bailed out of a two-day music and dance festival being organised by Spicmacay after right-wing trolls began attacking featured Carnatic singer T.M. Krishna, who is known to have strong views against religious chauvinism.
“AAI developed cold feet and feared that there will be protests at Nehru Park in Delhi because Krishna was to perform and bailed out of the event though the official reason given is the exigencies of AAI’s workload,” a Spicmacay official told The Hindu on Thursday, confirming a report published in The Indian Express .
After the event scheduled for November 17-18 was put off, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government contacted Mr. Krishna offering to host his concert.
Abhinandita Mathur, adviser to Delhi Arts, Culture and Languages Minister Manish Sisodia said: “We have reached out to Mr. Krishna and we are figuring out a mutually convenient date to organise the concert in Delhi.”
Several other organisations in the city such as the JNU Students’ Union and SAHMAT also offered to organise the singer’s concert.
The offers came after Mr. Krishna was quoted as saying, “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.”
The AAI tried to distance itself from Mr. Krishna saying: “It is not a T.M. Krishna event. There were other bigger artistes who were to perform. We have advertised all the artistes. We had to cancel the event due to some urgent engagements.” AAI however, did not elaborate on what the engagements were.
Mr. Krishna was called an “urban Naxal”, “anti-national, ”a converted bigot” among other things by several tolls and AAI was also attacked for spending public money on the concert.
The performance ‘Dance and Music in the Park’ was scheduled to be held at Nehru Park on November 17-18. Other artistes invited to participate in the festival included dancers Sonal Mansingh, Priyadarsini Govind, and sitar player Shahid Parvez Khan.
Our Special Correspondent adds from Chennai:
No concrete reason given, says singer
Mr. Krishna said the postponement of his concert without a fresh date was equal to “cancellation”. “The Airports Authority of India has not given me any concrete reason for the postponement. I do not know whether I will be asked to perform even if they conduct the event on a different date,” he said.
