Recent casteist remarks are attempts to portray me as separatist, troublemaker: Rapper Vedan

Kochi | Popular rapper and songwriter Vedan (Hirandas Murali) on Thursday said that the recent allegedly casteist remarks of Hindu Aikyavedi leader K P Sasikala against him were part of an ongoing attempt to portray him as "an extremist, a separatist or a troublemaker".

He also claimed that Sasikala's remarks, that rap music has no connection with the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) community, show that people like her do not want people from such communities to do anything else.

"I do not have the voice to sing classical songs, else I would have. I can only sing rap," he said while speaking to reporters here.

Vedan further said that all the disparaging remarks against him also show that what he was doing and saying was having the desired effect.

Hitting back at Sasikala for her comment that rap has no connection with the SC/ST community, he said that democracy and extreme Hindutva politics of the Sangh Parivar have no link.

Hindu Aikyavedi is a prominent Sangh outfit in Kerala.

Sasikala, during an event in Palakkad on Wednesday, alleged that society was being humiliated by Vedan’s "improperly dressed antics" and that it was time to stop the same.

She also questioned what connection rap music had with the SC/ST community.

"Is that (rap music) part of the unique art or culture of the SC/ST community? Is that a tribal culture? Is that how their (SC/ST) identity has to be asserted?" she had asked while speaking at the event.

She had also questioned why rap music was part of the programmes at a recent event held at Palakkad using funds of the SC/ST Development Department.

Sasikala said that the government needs to hear properly what the people are saying and it should change its alleged stand that it will only hear 'ganja users'.

Vedan and eight others were arrested last month in a drug case and five grams of dried ganja and equipment to use the contraband were seized from the apartment he was staying at.

He was released on bail, shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) veteran P Jayarajan on Thursday said that Vedan was facing "caste abuse" due to his music and demanded that a case be lodged against Sasikala by the police for her remarks.

He termed her organisation as a "poisonous animal" and claimed that what they were spreading was "condemnable".