Reproduced below is the editorial published in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece,
Dopahar ka Saamna — editor, Bal Thackeray, working editor, Sanjay Nirupam — on May 4, 1998

Bajrang Dal activists deserve praise for forcing themselves inside (Maqbool Fida) Husain’s home and ransacking the place. This is not enough, his brush and the fingers he uses to paint our gods and goddesses in the nude should also be broken. His brain which is infested with such filthy ideas, too, should be smashed. We say all this fully aware that Husain is an artist and people engaged in the arts deserve to be protected. But artists like Husain do not deserve any such consideration. He is not an artist but a disgrace to the global community of artists.

We are tired of repeatedly asking why his brush can produce nude paintings only of Hindu gods and goddesses. If he is a painter and believes in the artist’s freedom of expression, why does he not paint a portrait of Prophet Mohammed, too, on the strength of that same conviction? What ultimately inspires his belief in artistic freedom?

We would like to state once again that we do not have a filthy and sick mind like Husain’s to wish to insult Islam and see a portrait of Mohammed Saheb of the same kind that he has done of Ma Sita. All we want is to put Husain’s artistic freedom to test. In the past, he has always failed this test. This is so not because while attempting a sketch of Mohammed Saheb, his brush freezes or the paint dries up. It is because he is a Muslim and, being a Muslim, he cannot even dream of insulting Mohammed Saheb.

The issue is not his fear of Muslim fundamentalists alone. It is also the case that he is sure to have at least so much respect for Islam that he would not like to insult its prophets. Then why can he not show the same respect for Hindu gods? Even if he has no respect for them, why does he not fear insulting Hindu gods and goddesses? He portrays goddess Durga or Sita in the nude and remains carefree. Whenever the issue is raised with him, he keeps the question of his religious convictions aside and seeks the cover of an artist’s freedom.

It is evident from his conduct that he is a Muslim first and an artist later. Husain behaves in exactly the same fashion as the majority of Muslim fundamentalists who cannot tolerate any attack on their beliefs but who behave in an insulting manner against Hindu religion. Husain is no better than a fundamentalist Muslim. If we were to test him with the definition of the word communal, no Muslim in India can be more communal than Husain.

Unfortunately, whenever brave Hindu youth start a movement against him or castigate him for his misdeeds, Husain immediately hides his communal self and gathers sympathy for himself in the name of freedom of expression. Experimentation in art is a welcome thing. But there is a limit to that freedom. Husain violates that limit. A strategy is necessary to check this repeated violation.

Today, Hussain is the only depraved and anti–Hindu artist in the country. But if he is left to romp around like an unrestrained stud, other artists will start following his example. What that will mean to the sanctity and purity of our goddesses can well be imagined.

Husain is in hiding. Last time, too, he had gone into hiding. Police files a case against him. Last time also it did the same thing. He had fled to London. This time, too, a case will be lodged against him under the Indian Penal Code. For weeks, there will be anger against the man in hiding. After that, Hindu blood that is now on the boil will cool down. Then, Husain will quietly slip back into the country. The police will keep mum. A few months later, the man will repeat his dirty deed. The Hindu will be outraged yet again. The police will once again be in a dilemma whether to act against Hindu outrage or Husain’s misdeed.

The only way to end the repeated enactment of the same drama is to silence Husain forever. He should be grabbed, tied up in the centre of Shavaji Park and then beaten in a way that he either gives up art forever or restricts himself to the depiction of romance and nature.