Sona Mohapatra, known to speak her mind on social issues, had a bone to pick with the country’s premiere technology institute — IIT-Bombay. On Friday afternoon, the singer wrote a particularly scathing post on her Facebook account, accusing the institute of being blatantly ‘sexist.’ The allegation came about after Sona was declined a place on the stage, of what is Asia’s biggest campus festival, Mood Indigo. It has previously featured big names such as Porcupine Tree, Epica, Lucky Ali, Mike Portnoy and Karnivool, to name a few. According to Sona, a review of the list throws up more male names than female ones, thus suggesting that the institute is biased towards male singers. She claimed that Mood-I has been inviting her to perform at the festival for the past three years “under the umbrella of a male performer.”

She wrote, “The only few human’s of my gender who have landed up ‘performing’ in this ‘cultural’ festival are either ‘not paid’ or could (perform), only under the umbrella of another man or in a ‘troupe’ of some kind.....For three years in a row I’ve been getting calls from your Mood-I committee members for a concert in your festival but the invite always comes with a caveat. A big caveat. A non negotiable caveat. A ‘MAN’ needs to be clubbed in on the marquee to validate my stage, a paid stage in particular. A SOLO FEMALE headliner? Want to be paid a price? Just not possible. The ‘men’ have homes to support, we women just ‘work’ for ‘fun’! (sic)”

Sona later shared a few screenshots from the institute’s Facebook page to prove her point. (Photo: Facebook)

Akhil Dhoot, co-ordinator for the year’s Mood- I edition, however refutes Sona’s allegation. He states that they had to look for other performers only because the singer quoted a price that worked against their budget. He explains, “We did approach Sona for the festival but the price she quoted was out of our budget. We simply couldn’t afford it. When musician Karsh Kale was okay with our price, we decided to get him on board instead. We have girls who are a part of our core team. I really don’t know why she is making all such comments. We are a student organisation working very hard to organise our festival.” He goes on to add, “We do not consciously try to get only male performers at the event. Previously, we have had Asha Bhosle, Epica (the lead singer of the band is a female,) Shibani Kashyap and Tulsi Kumar perform. About the ‘male umbrella’ bit, YouTube sensation Vidya Vox will be performing with Shankar Tucker this year only because they are a part of the same troupe.”

In the 1200-words-long post, Sona also wrote, “What cultural festival has for decades showcased only men headliners on their stage, be it music, literature, politics, comedy or any other domain? Most’ college campuses in India, esp the premiere institutes of course follow suit and copy-paste this disgusting blueprint of yours. Please do check out the archives of the line-ups you have showcased year after year. (sic)”

Ketaki Kakade, a team member of this year’s festival dismisses the allegation. She says, “Admission to IIT-Bombay takes place entirely through a written test. There is no room for any kind of gender discrimination here. I agree that the sex ratio here is skewed but since the admission procedure is unbiased, it is plain stupid to say that sexism exists in the college. The girls on campus are treated equally as the guys, be it in academics or extra curricular activities.”