Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin visited lyricist Vairamuthu's house in Chennai on his birthday on Thursday, July 13. Vairamuthu has been accused of sexual harassment by several women including singer Chinmayi Sripada. Following the visit, Chinmayi criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for repeatedly honouring and platforming Vairamuthu.
“The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu personally visits the home of a man accused by several women of sexual harassment to wish him on his birthday; I, as a multiple award-winning singer and voice-over artiste, face a work ban by the Tamil film industry since 2018, for naming this poet as a molester in the MeToo movement,” Chinmayi said.
In November 2018, Chinmayi was expelled from the South Indian Cine, Television Artistes and Dubbing Artists Union (SICTADAU), soon after she spoke out in support of two women who had accused actor-politician Radha Ravi, the president of the dubbing union, of sexual misconduct. It was around the same time that Chinmayi also alleged sexual harassment by Vairamuthu, detailing how around 13 years earlier, she had been asked by the organiser of a programme in Switzerland to “cooperate” with Vairamuthu.
கவிப்பேரரசு @Vairamuthu அவர்களுக்குப் பிறந்தநாள் நல்வாழ்த்துகளைத் தெரிவித்துக் கொள்கிறேன்.
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) July 13, 2023
தமிழ்க்கவிக்கு இது எழுபதாவது பிறந்தநாள். இன்னும் பல படைப்புகளைத் தருக கவிஞரே!
உமது திரைமொழியும் கவிமொழியும் தமிழ்மொழியை இன்னும் பல்லாண்டு வளர்க்கட்டும்!#HBDVairamuthu pic.twitter.com/21VQvorjky
The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu personally visits the home of a man accused by several women of sexual harassment to wish him on his birthday; I, as a multiple award winning singer and voice over artiste, face a work ban by the Tamil Film Industry since 2018, for naming this poet… https://t.co/8RpQ120swZ
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 13, 2023
As of now 4 Female musicians including me have said the poet is harasser.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 13, 2023
2 others have said on camera / media that he is an open secret.
Singer Vinaitha speaks about experiencing something similar with Mr Vairamuthu.
She was one of the singers who messaged me apparently.
I… pic.twitter.com/BFOfOusfqz
“Five bloody years (since 2018) almost and counting because the legal process is your bigger punishment; almost like they say, ‘How dare you seek justice?!’ A molester and a poet was born several decades ago and decided he can lay his hands on any woman, threaten her to silence with his closeness to multiple politicians especially the DMK. He gets awarded multiple Padma awards and the Sahitya Natak Akademi award plus multiple National Awards,” Chinmayi said.
The DMK has been criticised on past occasions too for giving a platform to Vairamuthu, by honouring him at party events. “This is the power that this man has and people asked why I and many other women didn’t speak up earlier. For all the speeches that politicians in Tamil Nadu go on about for safety for women, this is a crying shame,” she said, questioning political leaders’ continued silence over the sexual harassment allegations against Vairamuthu.
She also talked about the harassment she regularly faces on social media for her role in the MeToo movement and for speaking up about the sexual harassment allegations. “Every year on a molester’s birthday, men and women in/from the great Tamil Penniyam culture find it necessary to tag the woman that’s molested and say ‘Vayiru eriyudha?’ (‘Does your stomach burn?’)” She slammed the “rape apologist culture” where those accused of sexual harassment were celebrated while the complainants are harassed further for speaking up.
Following Chinmayi’s accusation in 2018, at least 16 women shared their accounts of alleged harassment by Vairamuthu with Chinmayi and various news organisations. Recently, Bhuvana Seshan, an established light music singer, revealed that she was sexually harassed by Vairamuthu in 1998 and her career was jeopardised. Though Bhuvana had spoken out anonymously before, she decided to make her identity public, irked by DMK slamming BJP for supporting a man like Brij Bhushan Singh.
“Vairamuthu told me I had a great voice, that I have good Tamil diction and that people like me should definitely grow in the industry. He also said that he would pass on my demo CD [of her singing] to AR Rahman. I was very young, very excited. I met him the next day at his office and gave him the demo CD. There were no cell phones in those days. I had given him my landline number. We used to talk almost every day,” Bhuvana described to TNM.
She said that Vairamuthu kept pressuring her to accompany him to Malaysia for an award ceremony. “I asked him if he wanted me as a singer or an anchor since I also used to work as a newsreader. He said, ‘Neither. I want you to come with me.’ That’s when it hit me, what he meant. I told him I was not comfortable with that and didn’t want to talk about it.” Bhuvana alleges that Vairamuthu then threatened her saying he had the power to make her a star and that he could make or break her.
Another singer, Sindhuja Rajaram had told TNM in 2018 that she knew Vairamuthu as a teenager in the late 2000s. After meeting him along with her parents, Vairamuthu who claimed to have been impressed with her, allegedly started calling her frequently “Once, he said, “When do we meet? I miss you. I have written poems about you, please come and meet me at my Besant Nagar office.” I felt awkward. I hung up the phone saying I had to get back to work. His next call was even more desperate. He said he was falling in love with me, that he was constantly thinking about me. That is when I said, “Sir you are like my father. I have great respect for you. Please do not say such things. I feel very awkward,” Sindhua had told TNM.
Sindhuja had narrated how Vairamuthu persisted for a few days and finally she complained to an acquaintance at Sun Network, after which Vairamuthu stopped calling her.