Mumbai artists support Baroda artist accused by Hindu right

(Ahmedabad Newsline
May 11, 2007)

Mumbai artists rally behind MSU student
Express News Service

Mumbai, May 10: MUMBAI'S art fraternity has rallied around Vadodara's post graduate final year student, Chandramohan whose works have been deemed as "objectionable'' by moral brigade, and has been arrested due to a police complaint by a BJP leader.

Artist Tushar Joag, from Mumbai who had come to Vadodara as an external examiner for the annual exhibition, and was witness to the entire operation, said, "No doubt the artist's work used some religious symbols, but the men had no right to enter the campus without prior permission and disrupt the exams."

As a reaction to the goings on in Vadodara, Joag along with other concerned citizens held a press conference at Shireen Gandhy's Gallery Chemould at Prescott Road in Mumbai. Concerned artists and others like Mortimer Chatterjee and Tara Lal who support and display a lot of young artists from Vadodara, lawyer Vinod Shetty and art critic and curator Ranjit Hoskote came to support the cause. A postgraduate final year student from MSU’s fine arts faculty from Vadodara, Chandramohan, has been detained in jail under three different charges, offending religious sentiments intentionally, threat to national integration and harmony, and outraging religous beliefs.

"We are increasing becoming an illiberal populous democracy where people are resorting to unconstitutional means to contrive cultural and civil rights," says Hoskote pointing out that sanctity of academia and libraries is no longer something that is upheld, indicating burning of invaluable artifacts and books at Bhandarkar Institute in Pune by members of Sambhaji Brigade as another case in point. "There seems to be no space for freedom of thought and state is constantly telling students and its citizens what to think, it is a move to curtail whole scope of liberal activity which is indisputably fascist. The only right that survives is the right to offence," he adds. Kekoo Gandhy and Jehangir Sabavala were also on the panel and their argument was along similar lines. "A counter FIR has to be lodged but since MSU is not supporting the Fine Arts Faculty we have to condemn these acts as an impingement on artistic freedom, civil liberties and performing arrest without a warrant," said Joag.