Supreme Court of India : What’s the problem if Husain is in Doha ?

The Supreme Court of India on Friday refused to direct the government to take steps to ensure return of self-exiled painter M F Husain, who has been residing in a Gulf country, to India and withdrawal of cases against him.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan refused to entertain a petition seeking a direction to the government to withdraw all criminal cases against the 95-year-old artist to ensure his return to the country.

"If he is in Doha, what is the problem," the bench queried while asking the petitioner to withdraw his plea.

Husain had recently given up his Indian passport and accepted Qatari citizenship. He has been living in self-exile for nearly four years following a spate of cases in India over his controversial paintings of Hindu goddesses.

"The prayer made in the petition cannot be granted," the bench said.

The judges were hearing the petition filed by Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party Chief Bhim Singh in which he had pleaded that the court should ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take steps to bring Husain back to India.

The apex court said it cannot direct the Union of India to withdraw the cases as the complaints were filed by private individuals. The bench pointed out that it had transferred all the cases against him for adjudication in Delhi.

The controversial painter has been in the centre of a row between Hindu religious groups and the so-called liberals who feel there should not be any restrictions on artistic freedom. His drawings of Hindu gods and goddesses bordered on obscenity and hurt the feelings of Hindus.

Extreme right-wing organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad attacked him and did not allow Husain to hold exhibitions of his paintings and at times, activists tore down the paintings. It was the VHP argument that Husain had no business to hurt the religious feelings of a community on grounds of artistic license.

Recently spiritual guru Shri Shri Ravi Shankar too questioned Husain’s logic and challenged him to draw such indecent paintings of any other community like the Sikhs, Muslims or Christians. It may be recalled Muslims all over the world raised a big uproar and attacked a Danish cartoonist for insulting the Islam beliefs.

Despite pressure from the artist fraternity and the atheist Left groups, the government has decided to play down the controversy of Husain giving up his Indian passport to become a citizen of Qatar. But it said, he was always welcome to return to India, if he desired. The obvious reason was that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party would make a political capital of any gesture to Husain.

- Asian Tribune -