Legendary composer Ilaiyaraaja has been needlessly targeted by trolls. Ever since he, last week, commented that BR Ambedkar would have liked Narendra Modi's welfarism, a section of people have been questioning his intellectual integrity and honesty.

An old video clip in which Ilaiyaraaja is heard saying that Hindi is more amenable to musical aesthetics compared with Tamil has been pulled out to vilify the celebrated composer. This has to be seen in the context of a row over BJP leader Amit Shah recently saying that Hindi should be the link language.

Meanwhile, political divisions are only growing sharper in Tamil Nadu over Ilaiyaraaja. Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai has alleged that the DMK ecosystem is out to throttle the voice of the composer. He also urged the Centre to confer the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna on him. Republic TV quoted the BJP leader as saying this: "Ilaiyaraaja is not a member of the BJP, he belongs to the whole of Tamil Nadu."