New Hindu outfit owns up attack on cinema

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR, DEC. 29. In a dramatic development, six persons who identified themselves as activists of a little-known `Hindu Samrajya Sena', owned responsibility for attacking a multi- theatre complex and defacing some works of the noted painter, Mr. Maqbool Fida Husain, and surrendered before the police.

The attack on Wednesday was aimed at disrupting the premiere of Mr. Husain's film, Gaja Gamini, scheduled for Thursday. About 20 persons had damaged the special set created for the purpose by Mr. Husain with some of his paintings based on the film, and defaced his works ``as a revenge to the painter's known anti- Hindu sentiments''.

The attackers then said they had nothing against the film but were opposed to Mr. Husain's earlier paintings in which he allegedly painted Goddess Saraswati and Sita in the nude. The attackers succeeded in forcing the owner of the multiplex to postpone the premiere and the screening of the film indefinitely.

The six activists led by the Sena's Ahmedabad unit president, Mr. Ashok Sharma, were accompanied by their lawyer when they surrendered before the Koba police. Police, however, refused to put them under arrest claiming that the multiplex where the incident took place was not within its jurisdiction and waited for three hours before police came from Pethapur - where the complaint was lodged on Wednesday - to arrest them.

Mr. Sharma later told mediapersons that they decided to surrender to let the people know who were behind the incident. He said it was the resolve of the Hindu Samrajya Sena that they would not allow any function connected with Mr. Husain to be staged in any part of Gujarat because of his ``known anti-Hindu sentiments''. He, however, did not say how many people were involved in the attack and what would be the HSS' future course of action.

The Sena was created by Mr. Sharma when he and his supporters dissociated themselves from the Bajrang Dal, of which he was the Ahmedabad unit president. This happened after the BJP Government in the State put pressure on them not to vandalise the works of the internationally renowned painter. Mr. Sharma had led the attack on the `Husain-Doshi Gufa', also known as the `Amdavad ni Gufa', in the Gujarat University campus a couple of years ago in protesting his alleged nude paintings of Hindu deities.

State leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, even while supporting the attack on the cinema, had refused to accept responsibility for the incident. Their stand was vindicated by the surrender of the activists of the HSS which has no links with the sangh parivar and has decided to take up cudgels against Mr. Husain on its own.

Meanwhile, the State unit president of the RSS, Mr. Amrutlal Kadiwala, said his organisation would not follow its Uttar Pradesh unit's decision to disrupt New Year functions in Gujarat.

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