UK Hindus slam India as ‘pseudo-secular’

LONDON: A raging controversy over an MF Husain exhibition here, which includes two nude portrayals of Hindu goddesses, has set off a furious debate about the Indian government’s alleged refusal to take note of "Hindu hurt" even as it allegedly takes great care not to offend Muslims and Christians.

The allegations have drawn in the Indian high commissioner Kamalesh Sharma, who inaugurated the Husain exhibition, which went on display at the swish 18 th-century newly-acquired headquarters of a well-networked organisation called Asia House.

Late on Tuesday, according to unconfirmed reports, the exhibition was closed by Asia House in deference to Hindu pressure. The art exhibition, part of Asia House’s 100 or so yearly events to bring Asia to London, has provoked hundreds of angry emails and phone calls from Britain’s 700,000-strong Hindu community.

Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, an umbrella group that claims 270 Hindu organizations as members told TOI on Tuesday, "We have been swamped by emails and phone calls from Hindus who are hurt that this exhibition was put on in the first place".

Significantly, British Hindus say their calls for the closure of the Hussain exhibition are markedly different from other, more familiar knee-jerk campaigns of the past. Kallidai emphasised Sharma’s role in the whole affair appeared to underline "India’s double standards in the treatment of Hindus and other religions".