Prabha Yesudas, wife of singing legend K.J. Yesudas, has denied reports that her husband has turned a Hindu.
“I do not know how this news has come and it’s not true,” Prabha told a TV channel.
She was responding to a statement on BJP MP Subramanian Swamy's Twitter account on Wednesday hailing Yesudas' decision to "return to the religion of his Hindu ancestors”.
Let us all Virat Hindus welcome the twitter news, if true, that famous singer Yesudas has returned to the religion of hisHindu ancestors.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 6, 2016
On his birthday, Yesudas, 76, along with his entire family visits the Kollur Mookambika temple near Mangalore in Karnataka and takes part in the musical tribute.
Yesudas has sung numerous songs hailing Lord Guruvayoorapan but has not been allowed entry into the Sree Krishna Temple at Guruvayoor as he is a non-Hindu.
The issue of Yesudas’ entry into the Guruvayoor temple has been raging since the 1960s. As the temple has a policy of disallowing non-Hindus inside the temple precincts, Yesudas, being a Catholic, was barred from performing. However, Yesudas’ guru Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar was let inside. But the Guru had compassion on his disciple and led Yesudas to an impromptu, all-night concert in praise of Lord Krishna outside the temple. Ever since, there have been constant demands for Yesudas to be allowed inside the temple since he has been singing Hindu devotional songs in praise of Lord Krishna for the last several years.
He has sung more than 45,000 film songs in 14 languages. He has won the National Award seven times. He has also been conferred the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.
(With IANS Inputs)