SHIV SENA...

Rs 50,000 for chopping off M F Husain’s hands!
Monday, 06 March , 2006, 15:14

Jamshedpur: After the turn of a Danish cartoonist who lampooned Prophet Mohammed and found his head on the block (a UP minister had announced a reward of Rs 51 crore for beheading the cartoonist), hardliners on Monday sought dismembering of painter Maqbool Fida Husain’s hands for his alleged obscene portrait of Bharat Mata.

The Jharkhand unit of Shiv Sena announced a reward of Rs 50,000 to anyone for chopping off Husain’s hands and handing it over to party supremo Bal Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena will also felicitate the person in public by honouring him with a pagdi (turban), Jharkhand unit vice-president of Shiv Sena, Shashi Kumar Mishra said.

Mishra, who led a march of anti-Husain slogan shouting Sainiks, before setting ablaze the effigy of the painter near Tatanagar railway station on Sunday evening, said portraying Bharat Mata in an obscene manner was a treacherous act and stringent action must be initiated against the painter.

Demanding the immediate arrest of Husain, Mishra said it was not the first occasion when the painter had hurt the sentiments of Hindus. Earlier, his nude paintings of Goddess Sarswati and Durga had triggered countrywide protests.

Mishra alleged that Husain had adopted cheap thrills for publicity and to make fast money by targeting a particular community, which the Sena would not tolerate.

He warned that the Shiv Sena would launch a statewide agitation against Husain as well as anti-Hindu forces.

Earlier, under attack from Hindu organisations over his controversial painting of Bharat Mata, Husain had apologised to the people and withdrawn it from an exhibition.