The Hindu : National : “Landmark judgment”

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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“Landmark judgment”

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court’s recent judgment quashing cases against painter M.F. Husain was on Monday hailed as a “landmark” ruling that should be built upon to ensure that provisions in the law are not misused to harass artists.

Addressing a meeting organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust here, leading lawyer Rajeev Dhawan charged the Sangh Parivar — members of which filed cases against the 90-year-old painter in courts across the country for allegedly offending religious sentiments with his ‘Bharat Mata’ painting — with “harassment through the law.”

According to Mr. Dhawan, for long the Sangh Parivar pushed its agenda through lumpen intimidation but of late it had discovered a loophole in the law to harass. Questioning the prevalent definition of obscenity in Indian law, he wondered why the country continued to use a Victorian formula of the word; especially given the Indian approach to nudity in times gone by.

He said the Sangh Parivar organisations were out to harass Mr. Husain because he was a Muslim. These right-wing outfits had no quarrel with the huge amount of pornographic literature easily available across the country. “In Husain, all they see is a Muslim; not the artist.”

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