Panaji, Aug 19 (Inditop.com) An art exhibition by renowned installation artist Subodh Kerkar with god Ganesh as its theme will now be held for two days instead of the planned 12 days, that too under police protection, after it was opposed by Hindu rightwing groups.
“We are going ahead with the exhibition. We have limited it to two days only though. We will not cow down to these forces,” Kerkar, a former member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told reporters at the North Goa police head quarters in Porvorim.
Kerkar said he had requested police protection for the event, which is to be inaugurated by noted author Amitav Ghosh Thursday at the artist’s gallery in Calangute. Rightwing Hindu groups have objected to the show, saying it portrays Ganesh in an obscene manner and therefore denigrates their religion.
Kerkar’s paintings and a green installation featuring a large idol of lord Ganesh amidst heaps of garbage – highlighting the garbage woes of the state – are to feature in the exhibition.
Asked if he would creatively interpret the deities of other religions, Kerkar said another Goan artist Francis Souza had already drawn hundreds of images of Jesus in different forms.
“And when it comes to Paigambar (a reference to Allah), I do not know what he looks like. He does not inspire me,” Kerkar said.
The artist also distanced himself from a statement issued by the Mumbai-based Pen All-India Centre signed by renowned writers like Jerry Pinto, Ranjit Hoskote and Naresh Fernandes, which claimed that “the attacks on cultural expression come at a very sensitive moment in Goa’s history. They gain urgency when viewed against the backdrop of escalating suspicion of, and violence against, the state’s Muslim population”.
Kerkar said: “I do not directly subscribe to the views of Pen All-India Center. But such activities create a preparatory ground for terrorism,” Kerkar said.
Earlier this week, Kerkar in his complaint filed before the Calangute police station had said he was threatened by unknown people who had asked him to withdraw his Ganesh exhibition or face death.
On the other hand, in two separate complaints, right wing groups had claimed that Kerkar’s ‘obscene’ portrayal of Lord Ganesh amounted to denigration of Hindu religion and offended the feelings of Hindus in Goa who revere the deity.
