Mr. N. Ram, editor-in-chief of the “Peoples’ Daily” of Chennai, laden with an Islamic compassion typical of Indian secularists, intoned: “Today [25 Feb.] is a sad day for India”! Why? Because, in N. Ram’s own words: MF Hussain, India’s greatest and most celebrated artist, has been conferred Qatar nationality - something that is very rarely given. The artist gave me this news from Dubai early Wednesday morning by reading out the few lines he had written on a black-and-white line drawing that he released to The Hindu.

What were the lines Hussain has drawn in black and white? I, the Indian origin painter MF Hussain, at 95, have been honoured by Qatar nationality” – it was accompanied by a picture of Hussain’s favourite animal, the Horse. 

Ram said, “Hussain was honoured by Qatar nationality but deeply saddened by his enforced exile and the need now to give up the citizenship of the land of his birth, which he has lovingly and secularly celebrated in his art covering a period of over seven decades.”

Yes, Hussainbhai lovingly and secularly celebrated Indian citizenship by painting nude pictures of Bharat Mata and Hindu Gods and Goddesses!

N. Ram laments, “India does not allow dual citizenship, even though it has instituted the category of the ‘Overseas Indian Citizen’” but satisfies himself saying, “Mr. Hussain will no doubt seek to acquire OIC status after completing the due procedures.”

N. Ram feels sad about Hussainbhai’s self-enforced exile and his need to give up Indian citizenship. But Hussain and we are happy, Hussain because he need not face the flurry of cases filed against him for wantonly and repeatedly offending the Hindu majority. We are happy though this habitual offender has escaped the due processes of law because in this way his ugly feet will not be placed on this sacred bhumi again.  

N. Ram says, “It is important to note that Mr. Hussain did not apply for Qatar nationality and that it was conferred upon him at the instance of the modernising emirate’s ruling family.” But that is of no consequence to us. Let him get citizenship from wherever he wants and live wherever he likes. Our only concern is that he must not draw or paint our Gods and Goddesses in future and make money out of those paintings, as he did hitherto. It will be interesting to see what kind of pictures he will be permitted to paint in the Islamic emirate.

N. Ram says, “Since 2006, when the Hindutva hate campaign against him escalated, Mr. Hussain has been living in Dubai, spending his summers in London.”

Surely Ram is wrong. Hindus escalated their protests because he escalated his offences, taking the denigration of Hindu deities to obscene levels. Hussain is a mean-minded artist who has in fact been enjoying himself loitering the streets of London and Dubai, raking huge fortunes selling our deities when he would otherwise have been cooling his heels in an Indian prison!

N. Ram laments: “He travels freely except to India, where he faces legal harassment and physical threats, with the system impotent and not committed to enabling his return. Though the Supreme Court has intervened on the right side, it was too little, too late.” Ram, you are right. We agree that the system is impotent, for Hussain was let off by the Supreme Court. With typical communist mindset, N. Ram criticizes both Congress and BJP for Hussain’s self-inflicted sufferings: “The Congress-led government, it is clear, has done no better than the preceding BJP-led governments in protecting Mr. Hussain’s freedom of creativity and peace of mind.”

Is insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses synonymous with freedom and creativity? Why did his creativity single out the tolerant Hindu faith and not the religion of peace (sic) or the religion of love (sic)?

Ram further moaned: “Mr. Hussain’s time of troubles began in 1996, after a Hindi monthly published an inflammatory article on his paintings of Hindu deities done in the 1970s. This led to a slew of criminal cases, filed in far-flung places, which alleged in the main that the artist had hurt the feelings of Hindus through his paintings. Mr. Hussain estimates that there are 900 cases against him in various courts of India. He has been harassed by fanatical mobs. Exhibitions of his work have been vandalised. All this has created a fear of exhibiting his work in India.”

More than Hussain, it was the ‘bleeding heart liberals’ who offended the Hindu community. One Peter Ronald Desouza wrote an article titled “Will they blow up Khajuraho?” in The Indian Express; Sushila Ravindranath wrote “Are we a nation of hypocrites?” in The New Indian Express and Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador) wrote “Cultures & vultures: wake-up call from Vadodara” in The Hindu (May 18, 2007). Madanjeet Singh was defending Hussain and disgraced student Chandramohan of MS University, Baroda. Though it was sickening to read their harping on secularism, freedom of expression, creativity of art, Khajuraho and all such hogwash, this writer responded to all three columnists. After three years, N. Ram is repeating the same nauseating absurdity.

Let us repeat the questions again:

-        Why don’t these artists paint their own mothers, sisters and fellow activists and liberal columnists in such fashion (nude)?

-        What is the need to include Hindu Deities in their perverted show called creative art?

-        What were bleeding heart liberals doing when Mullas were marching the streets of India for ransom in the guise of protesting against the Danish Cartoons on Mohammed?

-        Why don't you ask Hussain to paint Monotheistic reverential figures in the nude?

-        Who is Hussain and why does he paint ONLY Hindu deities in the nude?

And specific to N Ram:

-        Some years ago, your paper carried a cartoon of Mohammed in the ‘Children’s supplement’. When Muslims barged into your office and protested, you carried a Front Page apology the very next day! Why, what happened to the so-called creativity of art and freedom of expression? Why couldn’t you preach your secular sermons to those Muslim protestors? Now you write, “I have personally accompanied Mr. Hussain to court proceedings in Indore and have first-hand experience of the harassment and terror he faced from bigoted mobs.” But why didn’t you write about the bigoted Muslim mob then?

Ram harps on Khajuraho and Temple art! “It is ironical that a country whose religious art often portrays nudity and even overt sexuality, as in the case of the Khajuraho sculptures and the murals and frescoes of south Indian temples, has grown so intolerant as to drive into permanent exile its most famous artist.”

What an exposé of lack of knowledge of religious tradition and cultural heritage! Konarak, Khajuraho and Bhuvaneswar sculptures involve divinity and a sense of sacred passion. Most Hindu sculptures however, derive from the respective Stal Puranas of the temples and regions, and also portray incidents from the Ithihasas and Puranas. The family and community elders know how to raise youngsters with an understanding of the divinity and importance of sculpture, temple, and life. For Hindus, there is no lust in divine or human love; this is the perversion of those who do not know how to see beauty in life, and resort to crude obscenities in the name of creativity of art and freedom of expression!

Creativity has limits; freedom of expression has limits; everything has limits; even tolerance has limits! When creativity of art and freedom of expression exceed limits, the perpetrator must face the consequences.

It is outrageous to equate the filth of Hussain’s art with the Hindu Temple’s sculptural splendours. Any sane mind which has seen Hussain’s paintings will never equate them with Temple sculptures [religious-minded Muslim Ulema and scholars have for this reason condemned him outright; only seculars support him]. But insanity is synonymous with the communist mindset. That is why the Communist government of Kerala decided to bestow on Hussain the Ravi Varma award, an insult to the great painter, Raja Ravi Varma. Thankfully the intervention of some noble souls and the Kerala High Court made the government withdraw its decision.

Last but worst was from our “Twitter Twitter little star; Foot-in-Mouth Super Star” in this very same ‘People’s Daily’ of Chennai! Minister Shashi Tharoor suggested in an article that MF Hussain be awarded the coveted Bharat Ratna - for painting Bharat Mata in the nude? I am speechless.

Ram remains adoring: “Almost 95, the artist works a long day, producing large canvasses and life-size glass sculptures. Never has he been as commercially successful as he is today. His work now is mostly towards two large projects, the history of Indian civilisation and the history of Arab civilisation. The latter was commissioned by Qatar’s powerful first lady – Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, wife of the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The works will be housed in a separate museum in Doha”.

While we have no issue with Hussain painting the History of Arab Civilization, Hussain painting the History of Indian Civilisation is cause for concern. We don’t trust a man who had insulted Bharat Mata and Hindu Gods and Goddesses. He is a total misfit for such a project and we urge the Indian government to stop this project. 

N. Ram continues: “I know no one more genuinely and deeply committed to the composite, multi-religious, and secular values of Indian civilisation than MF Hussain. He breathes the spirit of modernity, progress, and tolerance. The whole narrative of what forced him into exile, including the shameful failure of the executive and the legal system to enable his safe return, revolves round the issues of freedom of expression and creativity and what secular nationhood is all about.”

Words like composite culture, multi-religious, secular values, creativity of art, freedom of expression, human rights and secularism are all frauds adopted by left-liberals, Communists, Minorities and pseudo-secular politicians with the aid of foreign agencies to de-Hinduise this Hindu Nation. Perverted artists and their fellow travellers cannot attempt to efface the rich Hindu culture of art, tradition, image and narrative to conform to their own track of de-Hinduisation of Hindu civilization; Hindus have woken up!

N. Ram concludes, “The conferment of Qatar nationality is an honour to Mr. Hussain, to his artistic genius, and to the India-rooted civilisational values he represents. Nevertheless, it is a sad day for India.”

Hussain represents India-rooted civilisational values! Can there be a worse insult? May be we now need to solicit Chinese citizenship for Ram and save the Great Hindu Nation from “The Hindu.”

The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai