<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BJP offending cultural world, says Maneka Gandhi
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In a stinging attack on the saffron opposition to painter M F Hussain's works and to an arts exhibition in a Gujarat university, BJP MP Maneka Gandhi said the party and VHP activists have gone âtoo farâ in their protests.
The Pilibhit MP, who <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>praised Hussain for his charity, alleged that his paintings had been misread deliberately and suggested that they were worthy of being displayed in a museum. </span>
"Even if they have been interpreted correctly, and objected to, that is the purpose of good art: to arouse debate, to create emotion and passion, to be a means of communicating the artist's own thoughts.
"Otherwise, all art would be a mediocre representation of the real world and would have no value except as a photograph imitative record of the world," Gandhi wrote.
She regretted that Hussain was living in a self-imposed exile in Dubai and London apparently for fears he could be attacked because of his paintings.
{Ms. Gandhi should know better. Husain is running away to avoid an arrest. Last week, he once again did not appear in the Haridwar court where a case against him is going on, and court asked all his properties to be attached. When UP police contacted Mumbai police, they said that Husain's flat is in his son's name therfore can not be attached.}
"He should be here in India and <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>we should have a museum of his works on public display</span>, instead of considering which ones to ban and destroy," Gandhi said as she requested Advani to advise the party in Gujarat and Maharashtra to call off their campaign against Hussain.
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Let us see what BJP says about this... <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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In a stinging attack on the saffron opposition to painter M F Hussain's works and to an arts exhibition in a Gujarat university, BJP MP Maneka Gandhi said the party and VHP activists have gone âtoo farâ in their protests.
The Pilibhit MP, who <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>praised Hussain for his charity, alleged that his paintings had been misread deliberately and suggested that they were worthy of being displayed in a museum. </span>
"Even if they have been interpreted correctly, and objected to, that is the purpose of good art: to arouse debate, to create emotion and passion, to be a means of communicating the artist's own thoughts.
"Otherwise, all art would be a mediocre representation of the real world and would have no value except as a photograph imitative record of the world," Gandhi wrote.
She regretted that Hussain was living in a self-imposed exile in Dubai and London apparently for fears he could be attacked because of his paintings.
{Ms. Gandhi should know better. Husain is running away to avoid an arrest. Last week, he once again did not appear in the Haridwar court where a case against him is going on, and court asked all his properties to be attached. When UP police contacted Mumbai police, they said that Husain's flat is in his son's name therfore can not be attached.}
"He should be here in India and <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>we should have a museum of his works on public display</span>, instead of considering which ones to ban and destroy," Gandhi said as she requested Advani to advise the party in Gujarat and Maharashtra to call off their campaign against Hussain.
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Let us see what BJP says about this... <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->