I had expected that today (Sunday) the topic for "We the people" with Barkha Dutt on NDTV would have to be something concerning M.F. Hussain. It was, and not surprisingly, the program title was also "A National Shame"
I quite agree with the title except that I'd apply it to M.F. Hussain and call him a "A National shame". No matter who you are, what you are and what your accomplishments are if you remain a fugitive from your own country then you are indeed a national shame.
That Hussain painted Hindu idols in a gross manner and offended many Hindus is not even a serious issue with me, he can continue doing that from Qatar. But the fact that he avoided and ignored summons from a Court of this land is a serious criminal offence.
Barkha Dutt and NDTV need to understand that the law of the land is above everyone else. It flows from our Constitution and no one is bigger than our constitution. One participant went to the extent of saying "only art critics should judge an artist"! Someone should remind him its not art critics who pay millions for an artist's work.
Now that Qatar has opened its doors to Hussain lets rejoice and say "good riddance".
Since Qatar is such a proponent of liberalism, free speech and freedom, I hope it will extend the same courtsey of granting citizenship to Salman Rushdie and Tasleema Nasreen
ReplyDeleteI read M.F. Hussain's interview sometime back. In an interview to some Muslims leaders, when he was queried why he chose Hindu themes for his paintings, he said that had he painted Muslim themes, he would have faced a fatwa. A very telling comment that.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the liberal English media fails to ask the right questions. Most of these paints were done by M.F. Hussain in between early seventies and eighties. There was no reaction from the Hindu community. What the English media deliberately does not ask is what changed. Why did the controversy erupt suddenly on the after the mid-eightees.
The reason is not far to seek and answer is sometime that the English (il)liberal media would like. In two words it is Salman Rushdie. Chronologies do not lie and any way can check this.
We are being told that Muslims in India are the most backward and most illeterate of all the communities in India and there are studies to prove it. How come an article published in an English weekly (which miniscule of the total population read) could offend and cause riots by Muslims who in all probability would not even have read the article. How can you be offended by something you have not read? The English media does not want to face facts and is intellectually dishonest.
back a few days, a hot topic of discussion was an artist's right to creative freedom. the contentious issue being kamal hassan's controversial movie vishwaroopam. a few intelligent people in the ndtv and cnnibn studios were arguing the fact that kamal hassan has an equal right to his creative freedom as much as m.f.hussain had his'. there are a couple of tricks that these intelligent people were missing. (a) the movie had the necessary permissions from the competent authority which the paintings never had and (b) what the movie showed was a fact and what hussain painted was an imagination of a pervert mind.
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