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.
Meanwhile, a group of Christian priests from different denominations have joined the protests with the VHP in Baroda.
They have filed an affidavit in a local court alleging that art student Chandra Mohan has hurt their religious sentiments by using the symbolism of the cross in sexually explicit images.
"This is hurtful to the christian religious sentiment," said Rev Emmanuel Kant.
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.
At the art campus artists, teachers and students congregrated with a sense of urgency, demanding that the university initiate legal action against local VHP activist and BJP politician Neeraj Jain and his men.
But the irony, at the Vice Chancellor's office, Neeraj Jain was not taken to task and instead cordially welcomed and offered an apology by the VC himself.