Much has been said and written about how the moral police across the country are attaining a Talibanistic hue. The latest case in point is the attack on the exhibition at an Arts College in Vadodara. It is outrageous that a political party has been allowed to barge in and also politicize what was essentially an internal assessment within the college. What is worse is the way the media has jumped on to the opportunistic TRP bandwagon to try and make martyrs out of the students concerned and the professors who have taken their side.

The incident is being compared to the attack on M F Hussein and the fatwa on Rushdie which is ridiculous. From what I have seen on TV the case appears to be one of painting religious icons in a way which offends sensibility and borders on obscenity. This has happened within the portals of an educational institution. If that is true then it offends my middle class orthodox mentality and I would certainly not let any of my younger generation learn art at such an institution. I am certain that this sentiment would be echoed by most Indian parents. As far as the children are concerned, their art should reflect their creative evolution and they should not be courting controversy for the sake of publicity in which case the artist is being hypocritical and untrue to the tradition of art.

Let us leave the rabble rousing moralistic police and the TRP avaricious media, who are ever eager to court and arouse controversy out of this. Let those who matter i.e. the parents, the students and the academics debate and discuss on what constitutes an Art Education. The platform which brings them together could be a more responsible face of the media, maybe the print media, the internet, bloggers park, or a parent teachers association, a student union meeting or a combination of these....