Rapper Sofia Ashraf vented her ire over the imminent elevation of long-time J Jayalalithaa confidante Sasikala Natarajan as chief minister of Tamil Nadu through a language she knows the best — music.
On Sunday evening she descended with her six-member team outside Poes Gardens, the iconic residence of the late leader, to do live recording on Facebook of her protest song: Not my CM.
Earlier in the day Sasikala was named as the leader of the AIADMK, paving the way for her to become the CM.
Just like her earlier compositions, Sofia’s latest protest musical-raps too went viral on social media within no time.
The firebrand rap singer had earlier registered her musical protests on issues such as Koodamkulam Nuclear plant and Hindustan Unilever’s dumping of mercury in Kodaikanal.
In the Tamil video song against Sasikala, the singer expressed her anger and shock over the “death of democracy.”
But her live show was not music to everybody’s ears. Police was out there to stifle this dissent, she alleged.
“We were being threatened with arrest, under certain sections by police. But eventually they backed out. But comments were passed over my dress code and the language I used,” Sofia told HT.
“They asked our names, took our phone numbers, addresses and our parents’ numbers. We gave everything they wanted,” she said.
She said today youths are frustrated over the “political bullying” and this is reflected in various forms of protests that erupted time to time be it in Marina Beach against Jallikattu ban or her musical rendition
“The youths have been discouraged from taking up politics by the political bullies. But now they (youths) are reclaiming their rights,” she said, vowing to carry out more musical campaigns.
“Youngster in politics is not a bad thing. Allow us to discuss politics and do not hold us back,” she added.
The lyrics of the song, belted out by Sofia and her band, are powerful. It starts with: “My vote wasn’t for you.” It ends with a strong proclamation: “Democracy is dead.”
In the song, she also spoke about how young and educated are disgusted with the freebies, corruption, and hypocrisy.
As expected the composition is getting many likes and is being shared around furiously on social networks.
“The youths today are concerned over the issued that politicians do not care – climate change, environment, ecology, preservation of natural resources, and the gamut is much wider than just politics and economics,” Sofia said, adding today’s youths are under “increasing pressure and are forced to follow a capitalist agenda”.
It is time youths are able to reclaim public space and wrest the right to dissent, she said.
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Source: HindustanTimes