Voice of the Veena: S Balachander by Vikram Sampath

Author:Vikram Sampath [Sampath, Vikram]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rupa Publisher
Published: 2013-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Already existing ragas he has claimed as his personal creations.

I accuse him of deliberately committing the unwitting Academy.

When his claim spreads in print, it will get world-wide propaganda.

Then, he can commit our Government to give him the prize.

These are the cool, cunning, calculated maneuvers of a crook!

This person’s sole aim has been to use the Academy, to commit the Academy, to cheat the Academy, to make it his accomplice in this act of plagiarism … to gain his ends at any cost … even at the cost of the Academy’s renown, respectability and responsibility which it has established since fifty years now. Anyone could have caught this thief in the act. It just so happened that it had to be me. That’s all. Just providential, just an act of God.

Though I have my own differences with the Academy in certain personal matters, there is no denying the fact that the Music Academy has done yeoman service in the great cause of our music and fine art and that the Academy’s concerts and conferences have won international importance and recognition … hence, when I read the Souvenir and found that the Academy was being blatantly cheated by a single individual, I realized that our musical ancestors were being cheated out of their creative rights … the deliberate scheme was pre-planned by a master criminal … I caught the thief by the tuft.

While he owes a proper explanation to the Academy and to all the other musicians and musicologists in the entire music world, he says so coolly in his letter that he will explain to his beloved rasikas when necessary! He says, in other words, ‘two-hoots’ to the Music Academy and to all the hundreds and thousands of musicians. Not only to those who are alive, he has showed scant respect to musical forefathers. He has thus treated everyone with curt contempt.

The entire issue is a matter of academic importance and rectitude … the Academy has an Experts Committee. It is that body which has to give its verdict, With Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, our senior-most musician, as Chairman, let the Experts’ Committee of the Academy examine this question impartially and give its decision. I am duty-bound to abide by the same.

The two artistes were now in the thick of battle, with arrows and barbs flying fast and furious. The Academy’s Experts Committee had been appealed to and they were bound to take an informed decision on the matter. In its long and illustrious history, this was not the first time that controversies had dogged the institution. But this spat had descended to an all time low and was causing great embarrassment to the Academy. It had to now resolve the matter with caution and sensitivity to preserve its own credibility.

Undoubtedly, it was the press which had a field day in this whole controversy! Arguments and counter-arguments on the subject were published in several newspapers and magazines which also started taking sides. While the Ananda Vikatan took a pro-Balachander stance, Kalki

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