I have blogged about this issue earlier, about how Indian media doesn't 'report' facts, but rather, 'persuades' viewers to stir up their emotions over nothing. It doesn't 'report' what people said, but 'puts words into their mouth' and 'creates' news.
That Mr.Husein accepted Qatari citizenship is his personal matter. He had tax benefits, he enjoys being part of the booming international potpourri that Middle East is hosting, he has international collaborations which he wanted to work on.
Why do news channels come up with phrases like, "India rejected me", "Has India failed him?" etc. It is very easy to now rake up the issue of his paintings and claim that he was driven away due to extremists, that he is suffering, that some terrible wrong was done.
I don't watch much of other news channels, I only watched NDTV, so I base my views on what Ms.Barkha Dutt said while interviewing him. She tried her level best to squeeze some remorseful rejected emotions out him and failed, he is too clever for her ;-)
Mr.Husein, how do you feel, at 95 years of age, giving up citizenship of your motherland, how did your family, your children react to this, do you feel somewhere that enough wasn't done for you, did the State fail you? etc, she just went on and on. But let us hear Mr.Hussein speak. Philosopher that he is, he simply laughed and retorted, "I think the media is feeling more pain than I am, I am an artist, I belong to the world, first of all, I never made any such comments like India rejected me. I had tax benefits in being an NRI, more scope to accomplish what I want, international collaborations, etc. I have some Arab projects to handle, I can work anywhere, everywhere, citizenship is a piece of paper which doesn't matter. If all these court cases happened 40 years ago, I would have fought tooth & nail in my defence. At 95 years of age, I just want peace, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in court cases, I want to concentrate on my art. Only 10% of my potential has been painted, 90% of me is still inside my mind some of which I want to put out, most of which might go to my grave. The Supreme Court judgement honoured me, the Government stood by me". He didn't sound like he was scared & bullied into speaking those things, he seemed to have said them genuinely, out of his philosopher spirit.
When Mr.Husein has no complaints, when he is enjoying his work, his art, what is the media's problem?
Then NDTV threw together a talk show, I think it was titled, "First Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen, Now MF Husein".
Wah re wah, how can you compare these things?
Rushdie and Taslima have a fatwa on their head, armed militant fundamentalists are baying for their blood. Taslima wants to be able to go back to Kolkata but cannot because of the death threat. Rushdie lives undercover, he gave up his religion to get rid of the death threat, it only exacerbated the problems, so he apologized and reverted to Islam, he lives in undisclosed locations, shuttling between USA and Europe.
Whereas, Mr.Hussein, there are 3 court cases against him, he is not hounded by some armed militant fundamentalists, he is harassed by some citizens of the country who openly filed cases in court against him, all done under the Indian Constitution. Mr.Hussein doesn't have enemies baying for his blood, he has Public Interest Litigations filed against him. Yes, there were unfortunately some rowdy elements who destroyed his paintings during some exhibition, which is very shameful. But you can't compare the threats that an artist faces from court litigation & streetside rowdies, with threats that an artist faces from armed fundamentalists who run their own parallel 'justice' system.
And all this discussion started by NDTV, just under the assumption that Mr.Husein fled India because he had no choice/protection from the Government of India, as though he is suffering in Qatar. I wonder why Barkha Dutt wants to feed us this news? She miserably failed at extracting any such feelings from Mr.Husein, that man is a true philosopher, him with his paintbrush, just unmoved by all this controversy/debate that people are raking up in his name.
Worst of all, Ms.Dutt's opening lines on the show were something like, "What the whole of India has been debating on for the last week". Wow, does she really believe that the whole of India is obsessed about this issue? Most people are illiterate, poor, starving to death, farmers have their own issues, swathes of rural land under the grip of maoists, Government struggling over negotiations with Maoists, now was this really the most important news of the week???
Not that I have anything personal against Barkha Dutt, I am sure her peers from other channels must be doing the same kind of news coverage, Star News is even worse. NDTV is actually the best among that bandwagon of emotion cookers.
The Hindi movie 'Rann' showcased this media wars problem with precision (Though I think they didn't handle the rest of the movie well, apart from pinpointing the issue).
All in all, it is very easy to now rake up the issue and say that the Government of India didn't do enough for him. Well, what did the media channels do? It is very easy to do post-mortem analysis on any event, and easiest to blame the Government. Have the media channels ever talked about him all these days? Why get obsessed about him now that he accepted Qatari citizenship and shove emotions down our throats, blowing it up out of proportion, showcasing it as though democracy's failure led to this? In fact, Mr.Husein doesn't need democracy to practice his art, he wants peace, which he found in Qatar, why should he care if it is not a democracy? Somebody should tell Barkha Dutt, that she can't function in Qatar (she will be behind bars for cooking up such emotions when there is no democracy and freedom of speech) but Mr.Husein can, since he is not a journalist but an artist. So for all you emotional journalists who can't understand why Mr.Husein chose Qatar, he paints colours, he doesn't cook up emotions. So the king or Emir or ruler of Qatar won't find him as intolerable as I am finding you.
Perhaps the paintings controversy prompted him further to shift base, by why assume that he shifted base only because of democracy's failure?
Mr.Husein could have settled down in Qatar even if all this painting controversy wasn't there, why relate the two events in absolute? That sounds like non sequitur logic to me. He is enjoying his work, let him enjoy his work, don't try to make him feel guilty for having given up Indian citizenship, and don't blame the Government for his choices. Let us face the fact, that even if the Government of India did 'more' for him, it could only be in terms of offering protection/security. But the international attention & contracts that Qatar brings, India wouldn't have. Mr.Husein himself said so in two interviews that I watched, that the process of shifting base was started long ago, the court controversy only further hastened it.
Also, for all those who hate Mr.Husein without having heard his part of the story, please watch his interviews, it might alter your perception.
Riz Khan One on One with M.F.Husein- Al Jazeera English
Barkha Dutt interviews M.F.Husein- NDTV
No comments:
Post a Comment