CNN IBN: M.F. Hussain Debate

Dear Annie,

I just watched CNN IBN debate on whether India should bring back M.F. Hussain. I was surprised to see the shameless manner in which the hostess was trying hard to sensationalise the issue. In order to achieve the same, she was not only trying to put words in Jayanti Natrajan’s (one of participant) mouth and suddenly started talking about eroticism and indian art.

Infact, I think that neither M.F. Hussain nor any of us want to discuss about nude mother india or goddess issue here. It is this sensationalism urge of media people that this issue has been alive for so long. I dont know the original intend of Mr. Hussain for painting these figures this way. One can guess in the most obvious manner that it was his own creativity and he had the liberty to do so. And, if one decides to go further (under the liberty of a common man to express his views) and examine the other possible reasons on the part of various parties including Mr. Hussain, it can unravel various shades of grey.

Moreover, I seriously doubt Mr. Hussain will be exteremely pleased to know that his self proclaimed saviour’s are now labelling him an erotic maestro. I am strongly against media involved in sensationalising issues which are highly deprecated and have no relevance as such. The point here is to realise that issues involving an individual’s liberty for expression should not take a trajectory into somebody else’s liberty to percieve things in a manner close to their hearts. An artist’s work that too a professional artist’s is subject to a lot of publicity and has the potential to hurt sentiments of other people involved. And, one person’s liberty cannot be defended to curb the liberty of several other people simply because the painter involved is a very famous or world renowned artist.  Many people besides media people and artist community do run a lot of faith in godly figures and stand for hours before respective worship places for their blessings. They believe them to be their procreator and as such think of them as their parents. I would question people arguing the case (Mr. Hussain is not fighting it) that how many of them would like their mother’s or sisters painted in nude and labelled Mrs . XYZ or Ms. XYZ. My point is that it hurts a lot..atleast to a common person who looks upto these figures in every circumstance of his life as their saviour. It strongly annoys when their saviour’s are attacked by so called saviour’s of individual liberty in the name of creativity and freedom of expression.

I know that morality behind  whether we should allow the kind of expression which hurts the sentiments of other people, is highly debatable. We all know that….the point is to have restrain from both sides. It will involve desensitising people about these religious issues and a restrain on the part of the artists. And, for god’s sake media should not jump into this. 

Yours

Mr. D