A number of Indians in the UK did a most bizarre thing last week: They walked out of an AR Rahman concert, and then came home and cribbed on Twitter. Injustice was meted out to them, they cried. The Mozart of Madras apparently sang a few songs in Tamil at a concert named “Netru, Indru, Naalai”.
Many Indians - from the south and the north of the Vindhyas - have been pointing out how petty the concert boycotters were. And joining their ranks, singer Chinmayi called out the hypocrisy of these ‘fans’ in four short tweets on Friday.
Tweet No. 1: When they’re ready to celebrate him as an Indian for winning an Oscar, why do they get so upset just because he sang a few songs in Tamil?
When Rahman sir wins 2 Oscars and creates history, he is "An Indian", but 7-8 Tamil gaane kya gaa liye aap naraaz hote ho. What yaar?
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
Tweet No. 2: You did know there were going to be Tamil songs right? And you do realise MOST of the songs were in Hindi right?
The show was called 'Netru Indru Naalai', had 65% Hindi songs (Set List is out there). Music knows no boundaries / language.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
Tweet No. 3: And may be you should think about why you don’t like Tamil so much.
Chase the American dream, your kids can Spanish; Live in the UK that once colonised India - but cry foul when a when you hear Tamil songs
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
Tweet No. 4 though was the best takedown of the hypocrisy employed by those who want diverse India to be a monolingual nation with Hindi being imposed on everyone.
And finally, pic.twitter.com/pLUL7w2Hmg
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
Slay girl!