Singer Chinmayi Sripada is not convinced with the clarification rendered by Pakistani singer and musician Rahat Fateh Ali Khan post the latter’s viral video beating a guy.
According to Sripada, the victim, reportedly Khan’s disciple, cannot accept the oppression in the power equation. “In this entire parampara, a lot of us are brainwashed into yes-manning whatever our guru says. Until and unless we actually cultivate a worldview, we don’t realise that a lot of what our gurus have been doing is pretty toxic,” she told us.
In the viral video, Khan is beating his student with a footwear asking for a “bottle”. In his explanation later, he said the bottle had ‘holy water’, and it was a “personal matter between an ustad and his shagird”.
Sripada, who slammed Khan’s actions on X, later told us that students submit because they are conditioned to think speaking against their teacher is a huge crime and their music will be taken away by God if they do that.
“This sort of physical violence is not new. I’m actually glad that this has come out because the kind of abuse that both men and women go through under their gurus has never really been documented. Several students don’t have access to education, or music tutelage at the same time,” she added.
The 39-year-old, who is known for her unabashed opinions, was a strong voice during the Me Too in 2018 when she highlighted several musicians as alleged sexual offenders.
She said in India, people just forgive and forget, especially fans. “It’s not going to make any dent for such artistes, because fan worship is blind. If you look at the transgressions of a lot of these musicians, I don’t think anybody really cares. You really think all the artistes who are in this peak of stardom have a squeaky clean image? No. This is some sort of an expression of pure alpha male.”
The Mast Magan hitmaker (2 States, 2014) shared that speaking against such offences comes with repercussions. “There are risks involved when you speak the truth. I have faced work ban by the Tamil film industry. I’m going to the court for the past five and a half years,” she ends.
