DEFENDING artistic freedom is easy, but defending Husain can be tricky. Recently I was on a television panel discussion on the Limits to Artistic Freedom, and most of the show revolved around Husain's painting of Sita and Hanuman, and the ensuing attack on him by the Bajrang Dal.
As a die-hard liberal, I was expected to defend Husain, and I did, but with dampened enthusiasm, and that too merely the principle of it, and not as it is practised by Husain. For, a few minutes before the show began I had a chance to see a copy of the painting. I must admit it's an incredibly erotic one—unlike the nude Saraswati which can be seen as ethereal—and Husain must really love trouble to have let it out into the public domain. Whatever their artistic worth, such paintings have simply too much inflammatory potential to be sent out into the world. I'd be curious to know what Husain was thinking when he fired it off.