CPI(M) Kerala secretary M.V. Govindan defends rapper Vedan, slams RSS
The Hindu
CPI(M) Kerala secretary defends rapper Vedan against RSS criticism, highlighting his music's challenge to caste oppression and BJP discomfort.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Kerala secretary M.V. Govindan has strongly defended rapper Vedan against criticism from the RSS, asserting that Vedan’s music challenges caste oppression and resonates with the struggles of the marginalised.
He dismissed the RSS claim that Vedan’s work incites riots, slamming its understanding of art and questioning its “artistic taste.”
“Vedan is a pioneer of modern music. He presents upper caste hegemony through rap with historical awareness. His music reflects the life of a poor farmer or labourer living in slavery and it has immense power,” said Mr. Govindan in Kannur on Monday (May 19, 2025).
He noted that the BJP’s discomfort with Vedan’s popularity stems from the fact that his work attracts masses and challenges caste hierarchy, which the BJP “openly upholds through its endorsement of a chathurvarna system.”
“We know many cannot bear the fact that someone like Vedan draws such a following,” he said.
Responding to the rapper’s past involvement in a ganja seizure case, Mr. Govindan said Vedan had already admitted to the mistake and that “the matter should have ended there.”
His remarks come amid criticism from RSS leader N.R. Madhu, who had accused Vedan’s songs of “poisoning young minds with caste extremism and separatist ideology.”
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