WITH CONGRESS GOVT REFUSING TO PROTECT HIS RIGHTS, M.F. HUSAIN TAKES CITIZENSHIP ABROAD TO ESCAPE HINDU-RIGHT HARRASSMENT

India shamed as its greatest painter is driven abroad by Shoba Narayan (The National (UAE))

“India’s treasured painter Maqbool Fida Hussain officially handed over his Indian passport and became a Qatari citizen yesterday. He is never returning home and Indians should not have let him go.

“Forced into exile five years ago due to death threats from Hindu hardliners, Hussain told interviewers that Qatar is his home now. While he loves India, the 94-year-old artist said, the country didn’t need him or want him. All over Bharatmata, the Mother India painting.

“I wonder if the Hindu fundamentalists who made death threats and lodged criminal complaints against Hussain had actually seen the painting in question. It is a stunning piece of art that does everything a great work should–it inspires and provokes; offers a point of view and forces you to question yours; it offers a window to the painter’s psyche; most of all, it is quite beautiful.

“The right-wing rebellion against Hussain boils down to a single and tragically polarising factor: MF Hussain is a Muslim painter portraying nude Hindu goddesses. How dare he?”

See also anti-caste: CONGRESS-LED GOVT WON'T PROTECT MUSLIM ARTIST FROM HINDU RIGHT (November 8, 2008)