Dear Santosh, You have suggested that whatever Dr.Raja has stated is false. You may wish to clarify- 1.Has Hussain not painted Hindu deities in an obscene manner and thereby offended Hindu sensibilities?Has he painted any other religious figures or for that matter any other figures like his favourite Madhuri Dixit in the nude? 2.Did he or did he not support the emergency? 3.Does Qatar offer greater democratic freedoms than India? Secularists may defend Hussain and his paintings until the cows come home,but the fact of the matter is that secularism is not a ticket to offending religious sensibilities on a selective basis in the name of creative art. This is what Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has stated-
Ravi Shankar flays Husain for nude painting BANGALORE: Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Monday expressed surprise over the "hue and cry" over painter M.F. Husain's move to give up Indian citizenship and chided him for painting Indian gods in the nude. "While India has a policy of free expression, one cannot accept blatant insult to the heroes of its land. It is the intention behind a man's creativity which is questionable," Ravi Shankar said in a statement. "In one of Husain's paintings of Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Hitler, he painted only Hitler nude and said that his way of humiliating a person is to paint him nude. "No one has ever sculpted Rama and Sita as nude. Creative expression is always welcome. No country has been as liberal as India... Any nude woman could have been painted by him but calling the women Sita, Lakshmi (and) Saraswati shows his perversion and hatred. "Will M.F. Husain show the same creativity and the same spirit with Islamic heroes and would he, then, be able retain his Qatari citizenship? Double standards, Regards Vasant Baliga The letter by Hilda Raja spreads falsehoods and smears. For example, Husain has never painted Saraswati copulating with a lion, which Raja claims he has. I urge people not to trust everything they read and see in this age of photoshop. It has been pointed out that many of the paintings displayed on the trashy fringe websites such as that created by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have not been confirmed as authentic copies of Husain originals. Please note that they do not have Husain's signature on them, which other Husain paintings displayed by internet art galleries do. Please see the following, for example: http://www.cyberadsstudio.com/SPEAR/hussain/tour2.htm One endlessly repeated specious charge of bestiality is a transparent fabrication. The unconfirmed Durga painting in question appears simply as a nude figure riding a tiger with a Durga caption, with no sign of any sexual suggestibility at all. Bestiality is completely fantasized by the partisan Hindu extremists. I submit to you that most of the other charges are similarly exaggerated or fabricated. Cheers, Santosh --- On Mon, 3/8/10, Vasant Baliga <[email protected]> wrote: > ? > ? > More on Maqbool Fida Hussain's Hypocrisy > > > This is a Letter? to the Editor of The Hindu, from a > practising Christian lady,Dr.Hilda Raja,?who was Professor > in Stella Maris College, Chennai till recently; now settled > at Baroda, regarding an Editorial in The Hindu in favour of > bringing back MF Hussain to India.It exposes Hussain's > hypocrisy and self serving attitude. > ? > http://hildaraja.wordpress.com/ > ?
