No Room for “FACTS” !

FACTS ABOUT THE FACT – Exhibition on Aurangazeb!

 

FACT (Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism) had organized an Exhibition of Paintings under the theme “Aurangazeb ‘as he was’ According to Moghol Records” in Chennai from the 3^rd of March to 9^th of March, 2008. The venue of the Exhibition was “

Lalit

Kala

Academy

” (National Academy of Art),

Greams Road

, Chennai.

 

The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr.Vittal, Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Mr.B.Raman Former Additional Secretary of UOI & RAW Official and Mr.S.Gurumurthy, Columnist, on the 3^rd of March at

5 pm

. The inauguration was attended by about 100 people. Prior to the inauguration, a Press Meet was also conducted.

 

From the next morning onwards, visitors started coming and the numbers gradually increased towards the evening. On Wednesday the 5^th, a group of Muslims (around 15 people) visited and argued with the volunteers of the exhibition about the authenticity of the paintings and the historical information. The evening news paper “News Today” carried a report about the inauguration of the exhibition.

 

A Thursday of Torment!

 

 At the venue:-

 

On Thursday the 6^th morning, City Express (City edition of The New Indian Express) carried a report about the Exhibition. A few Police officers from the local area police station (Thousand Lights-F4) were posted at the venue, because of the ruckus caused by the Muslims the previous day. The academy in-charge Mr.R.M.Palaniappan asked the organizers to vacate, in anticipation of problems. The Asst.Commissioner of Police Mr.Murali visited the venue, went around the exhibits, questioned the organizer & volunteers, allegedly made some arrogant remarks and went out. Then, Hindu Munnani President Shri.Ramagopalan and VHP office bearer Shri.Gopal ji had visited. Shri.Gopal ji had arranged for the visit of press persons and TV anchors, who all came and covered the exhibition. Smt.Tamizhisai Sounderarajan, State Deputy General Secretary of BJP and her colleagues had also visited in the afternoon. Smt.Chandralekha, IAS (Retd) & President of Janatha Party, Tamil Nadu, too had visited.

 

Then around

3 pm

, Prince of Arcot Mr.Mohammed Ali had visited and gone around the exhibits. He had debated and argued with the volunteers present there about the truth & authenticity of the paintings and the information they carried. He had even contested that all are fabricated and distorted history and had questioned the necessity of conducting such an exhibition in Chennai. He had also blamed the organizers that, they have a hidden agenda of inciting communal hatred. He had opined that the exhibition must be closed with immediate effect. He had departed saying that he would issue statements through press meet about the exhibition and that he would also take the issue to the appropriate authority.

 

Then in the evening some TV crews and press reporters had visited to cover the exhibition. They had a mini interview with Mr.Francois Gautier, the Founder Trustee of FACT. At that time a group of Muslims, allegedly from TMMK (Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam) and MNP (Manitha Neethi Paasarai) had come to the venue, took photographs of a few exhibits with their mobile phone cameras and picked up arguments with the volunteers, most of them elderly women from decent family backgrounds. Later on, the Muslims had threatened Mr.Francois and the volunteers to close the show immediately or face the consequences the next day. When all these arguments were going on between the organizers and the Muslims, the police had not bothered to come up (The hall was in the first floor) from basement. All the exchange of arguments and the Muslims’ threats had been captured on camera by the TV crews and they had flashed the news all over during the

7 pm

bulletin and thereafter.

 

The group of Muslims, then, had gone out and protested to the police officers who were posted there. Then they had started mobilizing their cadres through phone calls and slowly their numbers have started swelling. In the meantime, as the Ass.Commissioner Mr.Murali was adamant on the closing of the show, Mr.Francois had left the venue for meeting the Comissioner of Police after having failed to convince the ACP Mr.Murali. The man in-charge of the venue Mr.Palaniappan had given a letter of termination of the show to the organizers / volunteers and asked them to accept and sign. But, the volunteers were believed to have requested him to wait till the arrival of Mr.Francois.

 

In the meantime, as the crowd of Muslims had started swelling, the ACP Mr.Murali got tensed up and shouted at the volunteers. He had rushed up to the hall with his full team of around dozen officers and started pulling down the exhibits with force despite the repeated plea of the volunteers to wait till the arrival of Mr.Francois from the City Police commissioner’s office. Even when the volunteers had pleaded that they would remove the paintings themselves, he had not bothered to listen to them and abused them in unparliamentarily language. He had used worse & unprintable words against Mr.Francois and had termed him as ‘terrorist’. Then he had forced the volunteers to close & lock the hall and arrested four organizers / volunteers (Mrs.Srarswathi, Mrs.Vijayalakshmi, Mrs.Malathi and Mr.B.R.Haran) and one senior citizen (Mr.S.Raman-a visitor from RSS) and took them to the local station (Thousand Lights-F4). Mr.Sadagopan, Editor, Vijayabaratham, who was there on the spot had rushed for arranging lawyers for helping the organizers / volunteers.

 

At the Police Station:-

 

When the poor volunteers were taken by a police van, a big group of Muslims were seen standing outside the gates enjoying the show. The five people had been detained in the station for about 45 minutes and enquired. The enquiry had been conducted by the ACP Mr.Murali inside his cabin and the volunteers had been offered seats in front of him. They had been questioned about their profession and their connection to Mr.Francois. The ACP had even talked of confiscating the Passport of Mrs.Saraswathi’s daughter Ms.Anupama. He had again termed Mr.Francois as a “Foreign Terrorist” and had blamed that the volunteers were helping & assisting him to incite communal violence in the otherwise peaceful Tamil Nadu. He had asked the venue in-charge Mr. Palaniappan, in front of the volunteers, to give a written complaint on the organizer / volunteers.  He had not bothered to listen to the explanations given by the volunteers and started taking notes of their details. Before that, he had asked the senior citizen Mr.Raman (72) to go saying that someone had phoned up for him.

 

In the meantime, as the news of the arrest of organizers / volunteers had spread, Mr.V.sundaram, IAS had phoned up the Home Secretary & DGP thrice, Mrs.Chandralekha IAS & Dr.Subramania Swamy (from Delhi) had phoned up the Commissioner of Police, Chennai City and Smt.Radha Rajan Secretary, VIGIL Public Forum, had spoken to the Joint commissioner Mr.Bala Subramaniam condemning the highhandedness of the police and demanding the immediate release of the detainees. While the ACP Mr.Murali had been vehemently blaming the volunteers during the course of the enquiry, he had got a call from the Joint Commissioner and immediately after that, he had calmed down and asked Mr.Palaniappan to stop writing his complaint and had ordered the Inspector to allow the volunteers to go after taking a written statement from them. They had been asked to give a statement saying, “We were brought to the station from

Lalit

Kala

Academy

, the venue of the exhibition for enquiry and were allowed to go home after completion of the enquiry”.

 

The four volunteers, who had been detained in the station, have very decent family backgrounds, are well educated and they have never gone inside a police station even once in their lives so far. It was the Muslims thugs, who had barged in to the hall, created trouble and threatened the volunteers and organizers, while the volunteers had been calm and composed and trying to explain things to them. The police had let the trouble shooters free and took the organizers to the station! A thing like this can happen only in Tamil Nadu, where a “Minority Government” runs for the welfare of only “Minorities” and the TN Police, as usual, are stooges for the party / alliance in power. The four volunteers had lost their peace on Shivrathri and finally they could neither go to the

Temple

nor do poojas at home!

 

                                                                                                               – Anjanasudhan.

 

 

PS: –  The Effect:-

 

The TOP leaders of Hindu organizations like, Shri.Surya Narayana Rao & Shri.Kuppuram of RSS, Shri.Ramagopalan ji of Hindu Munnani, Shri.Gopal ji of VHP and Shri.Sukumaran Nambiar of BJP, with the help of Shri.Sadagopan are working on the issue and they are likely to take serious measures.

 

 Dr.Subramanyam Swamy, Mrs.Chandralekha IAS and Mr.V.Sundaram, IAS are also focusing on the issue and are likely to take it to Senior Government authorities.

 

Smt.Radha Rajan and Shri.S.V.Badri will be meeting Senior Police Officials on Saturday the 8^th of March on this issue.

 

Mr.Francois Gautier, who had left for Mumbai today (

07-03-08

) for another exhibition on Shivaji, is likely to get back tomorrow or the day after.

 

All are determined to conduct the exhibition again successfully!

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