Milapfest cancels UK events featuring U Rajesh, mandolin player named in #MeToo allegations

Milapfest, an arts organisation in the UK, has cancelled events which featured mandolin player U Rajesh, one of the men named in the recent slew of #MeToo allegations. The events were to be held on 28 October and 1 and 2 November. Milapfest has not stated its reason for cancelling the event. “We are sorry to announce the cancellation of this programme and for the disappointment and inconvenience this may have caused. Ticket holders will be contacted separately regarding refunds,” read three identical updates posted on for each event on its website. These events were part of Milapfest’s ‘Indika on Tour 2018’, to be held in Manchester, London and Liverpool. [caption id=“attachment_5479971” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  U Rajesh. Facebook/milapfest[/caption] Singer Chinmayi Sripaada, who had been posting accounts of several women accusing men from the Carnatic music circles, put out an allegation against U Rajesh on 10 October. “A story about Mandolin U Rajesh that the*mother* doesn’t want to share. Says they will know if they know the story. I mean how many are paedophiles?? 15 year old daughter groped in the excuse of a music class. Throw away your instrument [sic],” she wrote. A tweet put out by the @IndiaMeToo handle said that Abhi Arumbakkam, a UK-based Indian woman, had alerted Milapfest about these allegations of harassment through an email sent on 11 October. According to Arumbakkam, the organisation “responded on 16 October via email”, saying, “We are indeed aware of the situation and it is being assessed and dealt with internally.” Firstpost has reviewed copies of this exchange.

Speaking to Firstpost, Arumbakkam said, “I’m on Milapfest’s mailing list, having attended one of their festivals some years before. It was around the same time as Chinmayi’s tweet, or perhaps a day later, that I saw that U Rajesh was listed to perform at the festival, including at the Southbank Centre. If Milapfest had not responded I was planning to write to Southbank Centre instead and if they didn’t respond either, I was planning to heckle at his event.” U Rajesh is a music composer and producer who has collaborated with musicians like Zakir Hussain, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shankar Mahadevan in the past. Firspost has reached out to U Rajesh for his comment regarding the allegations, and Milapfest regarding the cancellation of these events. They have not responded to our Whatsapp messages or emails. We will update this story if they do. Firstpost also reached out to a person who knows the musician in a professional capacity, who said he is currently in the US and will come back to the country in the second week of November.