Don'tpromote obscenity in the name of art
Dear Mr Achuthanandan
Apropos to the news item published in all national newspapers, including Mathrubhumi and Malayala Manorama dated May 13 and 14, 2007 respectively, that Kerala government's?Manaveeyam Samskara Missions? ?Raja Ravi Varma Prize?, for the year 2007 has been decided to be awarded to the despicable Indian Painter M.F.Husain, who is hiding afraid of being arrested as per orders of criminal courts in cases filed against him for having committed unpardonable offences under the Indian Penal Code for having painted pictures of Indian Hindu gods and goddesses, worshipped by Hindu Indian Public in India and abroad. I have to convey my protest to you and your cabinet minister M.A. Baby, not only for the decision to award Ravi Varma Prize to Husain but also honouring him as a state guest which is all the more deplorable, considering the fact that Raja Ravi Varma Paintings of Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Parvathy, Mahavishnu, Siva, Ganpathy, Ayyappa and other mythological personalities, which are kept in almost all Hindu households in India, as well as in all the countries of the world, to pray before these deities first in the morning and also in the evening. Such divine supernatural forms to be shown to the public by painting in despicable manner like nudity and such other grotesque style is crime deliberately done by M.F.Husain to create communal disharmony in the Indian Society.
I request you to withdraw the decision to award Raja Ravi Varma Prize to such an undeserving person like Husain and when he arrives in Trivandrum arrest him and hand over him to police of the State in which arrest warrants have been issued by the respective courts. I am aware of the fact that arrest warrants against him have been temporarily stayed by the Supreme Court of India, but cases against him are still pending trial.
I am writing this letter of protest not only on my own behalf, but also in the name of the Late Sardar Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, who is one of the renouned builders of Modern India, (including creator of the State of Kerala), who has been a world recognised Historian, Educationist, Administrator, Diplomat and above all a Malayalam Literalist. I am the managing trustee of Sardar K.M. Panikkar Memorial Trust and hence I am protesting in his name also.
(The author can be contacted at M-8/10, DLF Phase-II, Gurgaon -122 002, E-mail: brmenon@menon-associates.com)
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