Amid a row sparked by legendary musician Ilaiyaraaja over his analogy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the father of the Indian Constitution Dr Ambedkar, his son and popular music director Yuvan Shankar Raja has on Monday - April 18 caught swift attention by sharing his latest picture on social media with a viral caption.
In the picture that he shared on Instagram, Yuvan Shankar Raja was seen standing on a seashore in black attire. While his father has received flak for drawing comparisons between Modi and Ambedkar, he had come up with a photo and wrote "Dark Dravidian, Proud Tamizhan" as he tends to affirm his love of the Tamil language and he had joined a club of celebrities who let their love towards Tamil be known when the Centre is running a campaign of imposing Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states.
Yuvan's picture was rampantly spread by the fans. Earlier, Ilaiyaraaja had made a weird comparison between Ambedkar and Modi in his foreword for a book that was launched on April 14, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti. In the book titled 'Ambedkar & Modi: Reformer's Ideas, Performer's Implementation', Ilaiyaraaja has said that there were parallels between Ambedkar and Modi as both of them saw poverty and stifling social structures from close quarters and worked to dismantle them.
About the book, the foreword by the maestro said that the book brings out some striking parallels between the personalities of Dr BR Ambedkar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had penned, "Both these striking personalities succeeded against odds that people from socially disempowered sections face. Both dreamt big for India, but both are also practical men who believe in action rather than mere thought exercises."
The legendary musician has further turned heads by stating that Ambedkar would have been proud of Prime Minister Modi for his work for the progress of women, including criminalising triple talaq and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme. By highlighting that the book is an attempt to study the interaction of India's development journey under Prime Minister Modi with the ideals and vision of Dr Ambedkar, Ilaiyaraaja's foreword says that Modi has strengthened the legal safeguards for socially marginalized communities through constitutional protections.
The foreword says that by building toilets, constructing homes, and opening bank accounts and advocates that the Prime Minister has made efforts to help people from socially disadvantaged communities. Ilaiyaraaja's foreword has swiftly caught nationwide attention and several fans and political leaders and criticised his view of comparing Modi with Dr Ambedkar. The leaders of the Dravidian movements including DMK had slammed the musical maestro and they had urged him to take his remarks back.
However, Ilaiyaraaja had affirmed that he will not be taking back his remark of comparing Modi with Ambedkar. On the other hand, several national and state BJP leaders had come in defence of Ilaiyaraaja and accused the DMK of suppressing his voice and his freedom of expression. The BJP national president JP Nadda had also supported Ilaiyaraaja and asked whether the musician was being insulted for supporting Modi.
Comments