Protest against the vandalism at Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.University, Vadodara where the Hindu brigade attacked the display of students for the final year examinations, charging that the paintings depicted some hindu gods in the nude. The police, instead of taking action against the attackers, arrested a student, Chandra Mohan charging him under Section 153 A of IPC, for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, recidence, language and carrying out acts prejudiced to maintenance of harmony (according to The Indian Express). The NDTV and CNN-IBN have covered the news in detail. Given below is the NDTV news item.
Google News has more stories on the issue.
Renu Ramanath
Art college exhibition attacked by VHP
Rohit Bhan
Thursday, May 10, 2007 (Vadodara)
The faculty of Fine Arts at Vadodara's MS University is up in arms as the Hindu brigade damaged two paintings during the internal assessment at the university on Wednesday.
VHP and BJP activists lead by BJP leader Neeraj Jain stormed into the exhibition hall of the faculty and vandalised the paintings by a final year student and beat him up.
The student, Chandra Mohan, had displayed his paintings for critical evaluation by his teachers for an internal assessment. Instead, the activists heckled Mohan for his alleged obscene paintings.
Jain said the student's depiction of Hindu Gods and Goddesses offended religious sentiments.
Ironically, when the police arrived they arrested Chandra Mohan even though a faculty official said that the paintings were not being displayed to the
public.
''This was an internal assessment of the students. The teachers evaluate their works and are not open to the general public. We will inquire how the outsiders came in,'' said Shivji Panikar, Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts.
But the saffron brigade claimed that outsiders were viewing the exhibition and that the paintings were offensive.
''They are playing with the sentiments of the Hindu community by showing such obscene paintings of our Gods and Goddesses,'' said Neeraj Jain, Leader, BJP.
While Chandra Mohan continues to be in police custody, on Thursday faculty members met university authorities to get him legal help.
However, the university authorities have demanded that the student and faculty offer an apology.
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