BJP MP Maneka Gandhi wrote a letter to L.K. Advani to ask the Gujarat and Maharashtra party units to call off their campaign against artists whose works they do not like.
"We offend the entire cultural and thinking world" when an artist of the stature of M.F. Husain is forced into self-exile as a result of "continuous and unwarranted harassment" at the hands of activists of the party and the VHP.
She pointed out that Mr. Husain had been virtually hounded out of India %u2013forced to shuttle between London and Dubai %u2013 while he should be living here and the country should have a museum displaying his works, instead of protesters considering which one of his paintings should be destroyed. He had done more than anyone else to bring Indian art to international notice. "It is a matter of disgrace to India that Shri Husain should be sitting in Dubai because of our persecution."
She also said that recently two students of the Fine Arts Faculty of M.S. University in Vadodara were arrested in Gujarat as some VHP and BJP activists claimed that their paintings, which were part of a private college project, hurt their sentiments. The activists attacked and damaged the paintings.
She said she had written to the Gujarat Chief Minister and Home Minister several times on the continued slaughter of cows in the State. "Gujarat is the State where the maximum number of cows have been going for slaughter,"
