BJP To Nominate Ilaiyaraaja To Rajya Sabha?

Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja is most likely to enter the Parliament as Tamil Nadu BJP is planning to nominate him for Rajya Sabha. However this buzz comes in the wake of Ilaiyaraaja showering Prime Minister Narendra Modi with full compliments.

Going into the story, in the book ‘Ambedkar & Modi: Reformer’s Ideas, Performer’s Implementation,’ the musician has written the foreword. Shockingly Ilaiyaraaja has drawn parallels between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dr BR Ambedkar in the foreword.

“Both (Ambedkar & Modi) these striking personalities succeeded against odds that people from socially disempowered sections of society face. Both saw poverty and stifling social structures from close quarters and worked to dismantle them. Both dreamt big for India, but both are also practical men who believe in action rather than mere thought exercises,” read the foreword.

Bluekraft Digital Foundation launched the book on April 14th and in no time, the foreword written by Ilaiyaraaja grabbed a lot of attention and raked up a huge debate. Tamil Nadu MP T. K. S. Elangovan criticised Ilaiyaraaja for drawing a comparison between Ambedkar and Modi. The ruling party DMK launched an attack on the music and demanded him to take back his words on Modi. Surprisingly Ilaiyaraaja countered that he would not withdraw his foreword from the book.

TN-BJP has come in support of Ilaiyaraaja and even Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan backed the musician. Tamilisai added that everyone is entitled to their opinion and Ilaiyaraaja’s foreword is his view.

Amidst this controversy, media reports claim that TN-BJP is planning to nominate Ilaiyaraaja for Rajya Sabha. The President of India can propose 12 people from the fields of music, literature, technology and finance to the Upper House and six years back, the Modi government sent Subramanian Swamy to Rajya Sabha. His tenure is coming to end very soon and so the BJP is considering Ilaiyaraaja’s name seriously.

For now there is no official word about it from the GoI or Rashtrapathi Bhavan sources. But with Ilaiyaraaja’s name popping up from BJP’s side, is something that gained a lot of significance.