Home > 2007 Issues > July 01, 2007

Media Watch Something wrong, unbelievable about media Narad SOMETHING is wrong with our ?intellectuals??pseudo or otherwise. And there is something equally unbelievable about our media. Take the case of M.F. Husain invariably described as ?the most distinguished artist in India? and all of 91 years who is being harrassed by Hindu fundamentalists. He did some vulgar paintings which a well-known industrial house published in their annual calender. That the calender was quickly withdrawn from circulation following a public outcry is a separate issue. It only shows the utter insensitivity of the industrial house to Hindu feelings. But the argument is that ?the most distinguished artist??and a 91-year old man besides should have the freedom to vulgarise Gods. It is a strange argument. The industrial house in question is free to circulate its calender to let the people judge its contents. That it will not do. And few of our ?intellectuals? have actually seen what Hussain has painted. Now comes the case of an art student called Chandra Mohan, a final year student of the faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Gujarat, four of whose paintings at an in-house exhibition have landed him in trouble. Chandra Mohan is being described as the son of a ?poor carpenter?, as if being the son of a ?poor carpenter? gives him automatic rights to vulgarise gods. The Free press Journal (16 May) has been almost the first newspaper strongly to condemn him. In an editorial it said: ?To degrade and denounce symbols of the Christiana and Hindu faiths by deliberately depicting them in lewd and vulgar forms can appeal, only to sick minds. Depicting the phalluses and vaginas of gods and goddesses in the name of art is more case of an artistic license gone amuck rather than good art?. Severely condemning the media, The Free press Journal wrote: ?Is it not odd that none of the television channels and newspapers which have gone epileptic spewing venom against (Narendra) Modi for clamping down on the artistic freedom of the genius students have actually shown to their viewers/readers the actual works in question? The challenge for the secularists is to display the offending painting in public?Art that vularises/demonises gods and goddesses can have no place in a public gallery?. The question is: What are these Chandra Mohan painting like? India Today (May 28) gave a description of them to its credit. Reported the weekly: ?One of the paintings by Mohan shows Christ on the Cross with his hands and legs visible, and phallus hanging out, spewing semen into a commode. Another one is of Durga Killing a baby emerging from her womb, with a trident. The third painting shows Virat Swaroop of Lord Vishnu holding his own phallus, surrounded by several other penises. The fourth painting that is in line of fire shows a Shivling surrounded by phalluses from which Mohan?s own bust emerges?. One would like our intellectuals?and our Christian friends especially- to tell what they think of picture of Christ drawn in a manner described above. Had not a BJP activisit protested against such a painting, our mission-aries would have gone on a propagands strike against Modi for insulting Christ. And that painting is an insult to Christ which no sane person should support. Chandra Mohan is defended by some artists on the grounds that ?nudity is a part of the syllabus of Fine Arts?. No one questions that. There are beautiful nude paintings which it would be a delight to possess. But showing Christ with his ?phallus hanging out, spewing semen into a commode? is not art. It is desecration?.., pure and simple and it is shocking to realise that no Christian has taken objection to it. Narendra Modi and his government deserve to be congratulated for getting Chandra Mohan arrested. The tragedy is that the media wants to get away with half truths. One may hate Modi, but give him credit when he sees a religion being desecrated. It is not, as The Tribune (May 16) put it ?the height of illiberalism that a student of fine arts of M.S.University of Baroda had to remain in jail for a few day?. Narendra Modi has been hounded enough for being anti-conversion. Is it ?hounding? when Modi sternly takes action against an artist for insulting a religious figure like Christ? If The Tribune feels so strongly, why does it not publish the offending pictures to find out what its readers think? And then there is our columnist Mr Kuldip Nayar whose syndicated column appears in many papers, including The Tribune. (May12). According to Mr Nayar ?Modi?s Gujarat is a blot on India? and their?. ?BJP should feel humiliated, if no ashamed? in the matter of the ?fake encounter?. According to an National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report, quoted in The Pioneer (May13), the worst hit state in India is Uttar Pradesh with 68 (sixty eight) fake encounters in 2003-2004 and 54 in 2004-2005. The figures for the two years in Congress?led Andhra Pradesh were nine and five. Gujarat reported only one in 2004-2005 and the NHRC is not a sleeping organisation by any account. It would have kept a special eye on Gujarat. Also, for the information of Mr Kuldip Nayar and people like him Congress?ruled Maharashtra had 29 cases of fake encounters. Fake Encounters are by definition to be condemned. Nobody ever questions that. The Gujarat fake encounter involves a Muslim Mohd Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi. Kausarbi was disposed of in especially sickening circumstances. But what is the root cause of fake encounters? One is delay in the delivery of justice. Another is corruption with murderers, terrorists getting away after liberally bribing the police. Some of the police in Maharashtra who permitted bombs and arms being unloaded openly in small ports have recently been tried and sentenced-after more than a decades. Trying perpetually to make the BJP a scapegoat does no credit to our secular columnists. It only eats into their credibility. Gurjarat, sure, is against conversion. So are millions of Hindus, including Congressmen of all description. But even the most anti-missionary Hindu would not like to see Christ being dishonoured publicly, as the Fine Arts student at Vadodara?s M.S.University Fine Arts Department has done. Columnists are free to damn Modi. That is their privilege. But in the Chandra Mohan case, the Gujarat Government is absolutely in the right. One cannot permit Christ to be dishonoured in the name of artistic freedom. There has to be a limit to the media spewing nonsense to cheat the public. The argument is that ?the most distinguished artist??and a 91-year old man besides should have the freedom to vulgarise Gods. It is a strange argument. The industrial house in question is free to circulate its calender to let the people judge its contents. That it will not do. And few of our ?intellectuals? have actually seen what Hussain has painted. Now comes the case of an art student called Chandra Mohan, a final year student of the faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Gujarat, four of whose paintings at an in-house exhibition have landed him in trouble.

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