Artist MF Husain given Qatari Citizenship

Good news (that’s sarcasm) for people who feel their right to be religiously offended trumps freedom of expression:

Renowned Indian artist MF Husain, under attack from hardline Hindus for his paintings of nude Hindu goddesses, has been offered Qatari nationality.

The artist made the announcement in The Hindu newspaper. It is not clear whether he will accept the honour.
Since 2006, 95-year-old Mr Husain has been living in Dubai and in London.

The Hindu said that his “impending change of nationality brings to a close one of the sorriest chapters in independent India’s secular history”.

Correspondents say that Mr Husain – who has been forced to flee the country – is one of India’s most pre-eminent artists.

In 2006 he apologised for a painting in which he represented the country as a nude goddess. In the mid-1990s there were huge protests in Mumbai (Bombay) after he painted a whole series of nude Hindu goddesses.
Hindu nationalist groups accused the artist of hurting their religious sentiments and defiling their religion.

Highly offensive to the BJP

This is how SS Ahluwalia, leader of the hardline Hinduist BJP party, took the news:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today reacted to the news of Qatar conferring citizenship on celebrated artist MF Hussain, saying that everyone has the right to live anywhere in the world but artists should not have unbridled right of expression.

”One may accept the citizenship of any country one likes. My Party has no dispute with that, but it does not support the right to hurt in the name of artistic expression,” said senior BJP leader SS Ahluwalia.