Hussain booked for controversy

New Delhi: Maqbool Fida Hussain is in the middle of another controversy, but this time not due to his paintings.

This time the uproar is over the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) including a chapter on the painter’s in its Class XI textbooks.

The autobiographical sketch of the painter in a new Hindi textbook, Antaraal has upset many people.

"Such a controversial man should not figure, should not find a place in text books. Textbooks have a certain set of philosophy, a certain approach and they are meant for developing children at a very sensitive stage," former NCERT director J S Rajput said.

In past, Hussain has been under attack from the saffron brigade for his depiction of Hindu gods and goddesses.

The NCERT’s move to include a chapter on the painter is being linked to the de-saffronisation programme undertaken by the HRD Ministry and its departments after the fall of the NDA regime.

"Ek mahan kalakar ko pathya pustakon mei jab hum lete hai to hamari soch yeh nahi rahti hai ki ispe kis tarah se kaun baat karega; hamari soch to yeh rahti hai ki bachchon ko uss se kya milea, bachcha in se kya sikhega, " says Head of Languages in NCERT Ram Janam Sharma. (When we include a great artist in the textbooks, we don’t consider what others will say about it. We only consider what children will get from it and what will they learn from it.)

Alternative spells of the so called ‘detoxification’ and ‘saffronisation’ – that has been the story of the NCERT for the last 10 years as books have been written and rewritten to meet political ends.