I am being insulted continuously, says Vairamuthu; Liar!! cries Chinmayi
Chinmayi tweeted, “To EVERYONE who will debate about me on channels – whether you slut shame me or call me names Vairamuthu is a sexual predator. I will take this to my grave. And to Tamil channels who wouldnt even carry a ticker OR report, wanting a byte *after* Delhi news channels. No”
Feminist and Seven-time National Award winning lyricist Vairamuthu today responded to allegations of sexual harrassment levelled against him by two anonymous women in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
The women made the allegations through messages sent to singer Chinmayi Sripada and mediaperson Sandhya Menon, who then shared these messages on Twitter.
Vairamuthu too took to Twitter to respond to the charges.
He tweeted in Tamil, “Ariyapattavargal Meedhu Avadhooru parappum anaagarigam naadengum ippodu naagareegamaagi varugiradhu. Anmaikaalamaaga naan thodarchiyaaga avamaana paduthapattu varugiren. Avattrul Idhuvum ondru. Unnmaikku Purampaana edhaiyum naan porutpaduthuvadhillai. Unmaiyai Kaalam sollum. (The uncultured act of defaming those that are known is now becoming the culture of those across the country. In recent times, I am being continuously insulted. This is one such instance. I do not take into consideration anything other than the truth. Time will tell the truth.)
As soon as Vairamuthu, who is known to have argued against Men’s Rights activists as he himself is a feminist, put out his response as a tweet, Chinmayi responded by calling him a liar.
She tweeted’LIAR’ quoting Vairamuthu’s tweet.
She then put out another tweet in which she said, “To EVERYONE who will debate about me on channels – whether you slut shame me or call me names Vairamuthu is a sexual predator. I will take this to my grave. And to Tamil channels who wouldnt even carry a ticker OR report, wanting a byte *after* Delhi news channels. No.”
It may be recalled that one of the victims had alleged that Vairamuthu had misbehaved with her while she was working on a project with him as an 18-year old. She had said, “In the pretext of explaining lyrics, he came to me, hugged me and kissed me. I did not know what to do. I said OK sir, thank you and ran from his house [sic].” The woman had also claimed that the lyricist was being protected because of his ‘political connections.’
The other victim, who claimed to have undergone a similar experience, said the lyricist ‘almost kissed’ her on the pretext of a casual conversation. The victim added that it was ‘the worst day of my life’.
