Learn To Respect Facts!

Chennai is witnessing several unprecedented happenings. something -not -so-good happened on Thursday.

For the first
time in living memory, an art exhibitionm in Chennai had to be closed
down, just because a few self-styled secularists of Chennai objected to
what they called the ‘communal’ trait of a couple of paintings.

Francois Gautier,
a Delhi based French journalist’s art exhibition on Aurangazeb was
opened on Monday and it was scheduled to last till Sunday. On Thursday,
a handful of visitors including the Prince of Arcot Nawab Mohammed
Abdul Ali wanted the exhibition to be closed.

The police
intervened and forced the organisers to close down the show. They also
took three women to the Police Station for having ‘ assisted organising
the Exhibition”.

The police had
initially suggested removal of two paintings depicting demolition of
Keshava Rai Temple in Mathura and that of Somnath temple. The
organisers of the exhibition are believed to have insisted that either
it would be a complete show or no show at all. They believed in the
freedom of expression.

Now, the question
is, are we not matured enough to see art as art and facts as facts? Can
we wish history away? And why should we? Should not the present
generation know about our history? After all what the pictures depicted
was facts drawn from the records of historians. We have read it a
thousand times.

It was organised
by a well known French journalist and he had no personal axe to grind.
He wanted to present History as it is. He has conducted the same
exhibition earlier in Delhi, Pune and Bangalore.

We should learn to respect history. After all facts do not cease to exist just because they are hidden.

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