Husain’s death in exile blots India’s copybook

Maqbool Fida Husain's death and burial far away from his motherland is so depressing as it exposes yet again predominantly Hindu but constitutionally secular India's failure to take the bull of majority fundamentalism by the horns to save Muslims from being trampled or being gored to death. And squarely in the dock is the avowedly secular Congress Party of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.

Frankly, secular Hindus too are disgusted. But a lot of Muslims are frightened. And there is a gulf of difference between the two feelings. Everyone knows what I mean, don't they?

I am pained not so much by Husain's demise — he was 95 anyway — but by the chain of events preceding his death and burial in London. I feel badly let down by my government. It is so hard to avoid a chilling sense of betrayal. When was the last time I felt so helpless and vulnerable in my own country? It was on December 6, 1992 when the Babri Masjid was razed to the ground before my eyes. I covered the demolition for Illustrated Weekly: it was an eye-opener for a dew-eyed Indian Muslim.

The Congress Party government did nothing to save Husain or the Ayodhya mosque from the mob. On both occasions it chose to sacrifice secularism at the altar of politics; the all powerful government conveniently shut its eyes and the hoodlums did the rest! Accused of complicity in 1992, the Congress Party has done precious little so far to erase the stigma. And now it has blotted its copybook again.

Dr Singh promptly called Husain's death a "national loss". But it sounded so hollow! The PM was well advised to fly to London as a mark of repentance to be at Husain's grave when the artist's body was lowered into its last resting place by his sons. But the premier shrugged off the advice. And the last chance to make amends for the government's lapse was lost.

Subhash Chauhan, who heads the Bajrang Dal — one of the Hindu extremist outfits that issued a death threat to Husain compelling him to leave India — taunted Dr Singh and his ministerial colleagues like Ambika Soni and Kapil Sibal of shedding crocodile tears. "Now they want to confer the Bharat Ratna on Husain. But where were they when Husain fled India? If they were really concerned, they would have provided fool-proof security and convinced him not to go away", Chauhan said. I have no option but to agree with him.

Husain did paint a few Hindu goddesses in the buff in the 1970s. But he was accused of hurting religious sentiments and dragged to court only after the Bharatiya Janata Party captured power in 1997. Outfits like Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal — offshoots of the BJP — took full advantage of BJP rule to file criminal and civil cases against the artist in various courts across the length and breadth of the nation. They attacked his home and galleries displaying his works. An exhibition in London was vandalised. Extremists threatened to chop off his fingers so that he could never paint again. They threatened to set his beard on fire.

The Congress Party recaptured power in 2004 but there was no respite for Husain. His freedoms — artistic and otherwise — were curtailed. He was stalked relentlessly. He had friends in high places. But nobody stood up to be counted.

The Supreme Court gave him a clean chit virtually dismissing all legal cases against him. In September 2008, Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan ruled that Husain had committed no offence depicting nude Hindu deities as "there are many such pictures, paintings and sculptures and some of them are in temples". But the court's exoneration did not make a difference. Cocking a snook at the apex court, Hindu extremists announced they would punish Husain anyway. The artist appealed to Congress Party leaders for protection. But he received no concrete assurance.

Husain was basically told to fend for himself, although the government had the wherewithal to provide such tight but invisible security that he could fly like a bird, live without a worry in the world. The government did not read the riot act to organisations which were publicly threatening to kill or maim him. So rather than live in the shadow of death, he quietly left India.

Initially, he divided his time between Dubai and London. No serious efforts were made to bring him back. One of India's most famous Muslim ultimately acquired Qatari nationality — which he famously described as a flag of convenience that merchant ships sometimes fly. Indian government made some noises in sheer embarrassment. But neither the PM nor home minister nor any of their cronies tried to bring him back to where he belonged.

I think Husain had to bear the cross for being a Muslim. It is absurd to call Husain India's Picasso. Pablo Picasso left Spain because of his political differences with dictator Francisco Franco. Picasso was a socialist and Franco a fascist. Parallels with the Irish James Joyce, who wrote Ulysses, are also inappropriate. He lived in exile because the Catholic Church denounced his writings as vulgar.

Husain, unlike Picasso or Joyce, was evicted from India simply because of nothing else but his religion.

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S. N. M. Abdi is a consulting editor, writer, columnist and broadcaster from India.