* VivekaJyoti *

A thing like this can happen only in Tamilnadu, where a 'Minority Government' runs for the welfare of only 'Minorities'.

Culture cop: Assistant Commissioner of Police KN Murali takes away

a painting from the Lalit Kala Academy hall on Thursday

despite objection from the organizers. (A photograph by A.R. Anser).

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The Asst. Commissioner of police Mr Murali IPS was the one acting like an agent of the miscreants and he threw down two precious paintings breaking them beyond repair (how is taking law into ones own hands justified). The two volunteers (female) from Chennai were threatened by the state police and illegally taken into custody. Of course they were later released after repeated appeals.

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The "FACT Exhibition on Aurangazeb" got aborted due to the interference of Arcot Nawab, Jihadi organistaions such as TMMK & MNP and other Muslim fundamentalists, who had put pressure on the City Police and the Secretary of the Venue Lalit Kala Academy

The ACP Mr. Murali visited the venue, went around the exhibits, questioned the organizer & volunteers, made some arrogant remarks and went out. He was adamant on the closing of the show. Mr. Francois had left the venue for meeting the Commissioner of Police after having failed to convince the ACP Mr. Murali. 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 and one senior citizen and took them to the local 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.

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 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 TN Police, as usual, are stooges for the party / alliance in power.

-- Anjanasudhan.

Police side the miscreants:

Police said some Muslims, who came to the venue of the exhibition, raised objections to the paintings, depicting Aurangazeb's forces demolishing Hindu temples at Somnath and Mathura. “They claimed that the pictures were sending wrong messages which could lead to communal hatred following which we asked Fact to cancel the exhibition,” the official said. The exhibition which opened on 3 March was scheduled to run till March 9.

The visit of the police came in the wake of three letters including one from an advocate Mr Zainudeen to Lalit Kala Akademi stating that the exhibition would disturb communal harmony. The police initially suggested removal of two pictures depicting demolition of Keshava Rai temple in Mathura and that of Somnath temple by the armies of Aurangazeb.

Volunteers face the police harassment:

The Chennai police on Thursday detained in the police station three women volunteers (of FACT, the organizers of the exhibition) for interrogation, after forcing them to close down the show, where the French artist had displayed his paintings on Mughal emperor Aurangazeb. “If found innocent, they would be let off,” a senior police official said. They took Saraswathi (65), Dr.Vijayalakshmi (62) and Malathi (47) to the Thousand Lights station at around 7.30 p.m. for enquiry into charges of assisting the exhibition by Francois Gautier at Lalit Kala Akademi's Regional Centre on Greams Road.

Talking to this newspaper, Ms Saraswati (65) said, "The police was rude to us. They asked us whether we were terrorists. We were detained in the station for more than half an hour and they did not allow us to contact our family." Ms Malathi said, "The police entered the exhibition hall at 7.30 pm and threw away some paintings."

However, the organisers of the exhibition told the police that they would not remove the pictures as it violated their artistic freedom. Janata party president Ms Chandralekha rushed to the spot to express solidarity with the organisers of the exhibition. Ms Chandralekha said, "This is atrocious. The DMK-led government has always been against the Hindus. This incident also vindicated that."

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The Assistant Commissioner of Police Murali & his barbarously arrogant remarks

The Assistant Commissioner of Police Murali visited the venue, went around the exhibits, questioned the organisers and volunteers, made some barbarously arrogant remarks and went out.

The police functioned in a reprehensibly partial manner expressing themselves in open support of the Muslim outfits

The Assistant Commissioner of Police who later visited the venue used most unparliamentary words against the organisers including against Francois Gautier who was the main architect behind the exhibition. I have it on the authority of Chandralekha, president, Tamilnadu Janata Party and many other respectable citizens who were present at the venue that the police functioned in a reprehensibly partial manner expressing themselves in open support of the Muslim outfits. After forcing the volunteers to close down the exhibition, the police took four organisers / volunteers (Saraswati, Vijayalakshmi, Malathi and B R Haran) and one senior into custody and took them to Thousand Lights Police Station after 7 PM. This was in gross violation of the instructions of the Supreme Court of India regarding the procedure to be followed by the police before arresting any person. Moreover the Police had no business to arrest highly educated and cultured women from decent families after 7 PM. Sadagopan, editor, Vijayabaratham, who was there on the spot rushed outside for arranging lawyers for helping the organisers / volunteers illegally apprehended by the police.

The four volunteers, who were detained without any cause 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. The Muslim who had barged in to the hall, created trouble and threatened the volunteers and organisers, were let free by the police. The police had let the trouble shooters free and took only the organisers to the station! A thing like this can happen only in Tamilnadu, where a 'Minority Government' runs for the welfare of only 'Minorities'. The exhibition was illegally closed by the police. What is legal in Delhi, Bangalore, Poland, Germany, Israel, England, Holland and USA, becomes illegal in Tamilnadu, thanks to our enlightened police force.

-- V. Sundaram

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Unruly and undemocratic behaviour of police: VHP condemns police action at FACT exhibition

Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) International Working President S Vedantam today condemned the 'unruly and undemocratic behaviour' of police at the exhibition organised by Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT) on the topic ''Aurangazeb as he was according to moghol records'' at Lalith Kala Academy here. The police had ransacked the exhibition, assaulted the volunteers and took them into custody based on a false petition filed by some members of the minority community.

'The DMK government, which claims to be Hindu friendly, but in action they are more minority friendly than the majority Hindus. A gang accompanied by the Prince of Arcot visited the exhibition and abused the organisers and threatened them of dire consequences. The exhibition was organised after obtaining necessary permission from the Academy Secretary. I request Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to order a judicial inquiry into the incident and suspend the police officials who are involved in the incident.

Organizers: ‘Need to put an end to the intolerant culture of Aurangazeb’:

FACT (Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism), an art foundation of Mr Francois Gautier, has been organizing historical art exhibitions on emperors such as Aurangazeb and Shivaji in the metropolitan cities including New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai for the last two years.

Mr Francois said, "I have conducted the same exhibition at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Pune and Bangalore. No one protested. It is necessary to create a dialogue between communities and put an end to the intolerant culture of Aurangazeb. Let us inculcate the cosmopolitan spirit of Dara Shkoh, the brother of Aurangazeb, who learnt Upanishads and had a dialogue with the Hindu brethren."

The foundation is run by Delhi-based French journalist Francois Gautier. FACT India clarifies that it is not anybody's opinion that is depicted in the exhibition but only the History as it was from the Moghul court documents the Akhbarat. FACT India has orgnised this exhibition to bring awareness on facts as they are. And Aurangzeb and his philosophy of "I kill if you don’t agree" is the fundamentalism that the world is facing, it needs to be encountered tooth and nail. The Terrorism and the ideology behind it needs to be stopped.

The exhibition has travelled to New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune before showing at the Lalit Kala Academy, Chennai. The exhibition was scheduled to be in Chennai from 3rd to 9th march 2008

Also Read:

The exhibition that was illegally closed by the Chennai police

Aurangzeb's crimes against Hindus are too enormous to even be comprehended by any human being

Why do some Mohammedans feel threatened by Aurangzeb as a terrorist?

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