Not everybody is in mourning

The right-wing brigade that forced the celebrated painter into exile is in no mood to temper its antipathy towards him or his works even after his demise.

The right-wing brigade that forced the celebrated painter into exile is in no mood to temper its antipathy towards him or his works even after his demise. The brigade had filed a slew of court cases against the artist taking offence to his nude paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses,which they said hurt their religious sentiments.

Its divine justice. The man who painted a nude Bharat Mata wont get even a small piece of land for burial in our motherland, said Rajesh Bidkar,one of the persons who filed a case in an Indore court. Incidentally,Bidkar had spent 80 days in jail last year when he was booked under the National Security Act.

Kailash Tiwari,a painter and convenor of the Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolans MP unit,had dragged Husain to a court in Bhopal. He said,Husain was a cultural terrorist. Four years ago,Tiwari had exhibited his own paintings,Face of Terror,in Bharat Bhavan,the art complex that houses some of Husains paintings. Husains art antagonised a major section of the society because it did not have Satyam,Shivam,Sundaram that make art complete,said Tiwari.

Ajay Singh Naruka,a BJP councilor from Indore,said that he would put Husains work in the category of rajdroh (sedition.) However big an artist he may be there should be a limit to the freedom of expression, said Naruka.