Legendary musician Ilaiyaraaja has been surfaced with incessant attacks after his art of analogy between Dr Ambedkar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone terribly wrong in the eyes of the followers of Ambedkar, critics of Modi, his fans, and fraternities. Amid a backing from the BJP, the music director has vowed that he won't take his analogy back, only to see a pile of condemnations. 

In line with the back-to-back criticism for comparing Narendra Modi with the father of the Indian Constitution Dr Ambedkar, popular Tamil music director James Vasanthan has penned a scathing note against Ilaiyaraaja in which he asked what's his motive in hailing Modi on a similar scale to Ambedkar. James Vasanthan noted that Ilaiyaraaja's pro-Modi remarks spark a question of whether Ilaiyaraaja has the motive of winning an MP seat or a prestigious award from the Centre by supporting Modi or he has any personal enmity with the state ruling DMK. 

James Vasanthan had also advised Ilaiyaraaja to serve the Tamil community and teach music to younger generations like AR Rahman. Taking to Facebook, James Vasanthan wrote, "He (Ilaiyaraaja) is very talented and it is the fact accepted by the entire Tamil community. That's why we celebrate and recognize him for half a century. Though it is a business corridor, we keep him tall through his phenomenal creations that come out from that business. He is an individual person and he will have a personal ideology like how everyone has. So, there is no need for us to take his personal stuff beyond his work."

"But when it comes to social ideology, it's inevitable that his (Ilaiyaraaja's) remarks and principles can't be ignored. Based on that, being with more prominence, people like Ilaiyaraaja must be careful in projecting themselves. They should be meticulous when it comes to speaking about a class, society, or country. His recent remarks (analogy of Modi and Ambedkar) can be his freedom of expression but he could have thought about how his remarks would create an impact. How it is acceptable to compare the most controversial person who led a genocide with a leader of social secularism?", James Vasanthan added.

He further said, "It won't be a problem if he (Ilaiyaraaja) has said he likes Modi. The opposition comes when you compare a cynical person to a historical leader. His remarks spark several questions like whether he is targeting a prestigious award or to win the MP seat in Parliament that is reserved for artists or whether he has personal enmity with the state government. Because this (analogy) is against the fact." James Vasanthan stated that such a fashion of going against the fact is common in politics and Ilaiyaraaja could have avoided it.

He had advised Ilaiyaraaja to serve back to his community like AR Rahman- who has shown his pride in being Tamilian at many junctures. James Vasanthan has said that Rahman is serving the Tamil community through his music and songs like 'Vande Mataram, 'Semmozhi Anthem', and 'Moopilla Tamizhe Thaaye." He further noted that AR Rahman has also been teaching music to the younger generations from the backward communities and providing them with big platforms. James Vasanthan said that Ilaiyaraaja can take efforts to give his community back like Rahman.  

His post has been going viral amid the row stirred by Ilaiyaraaja. He 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.