[Reader-list] Feel free, Mr. Husain. Go paint Qatari leaders

[Rakesh Iyer]

I would say just one thing. In India, it's only possible to denigrate Hindu
gods and goddesses, abuse them, paint them in nude, and then get sympathy of
a large cross-section of people, including the secularists and the
pseudo-secularists. But when it comes to Islam and Christianity, try doing
that, and you will find violence being organized on the slightest of
pretexts. And the pseudo-secularists would go on a humbug spree to stop
this. And Hindus have started aping them too.

Why this appeasement? What is this all about? Is it secularism? Are we
willing to turn our country into a neo-Taliban society where any criticism
about Islam and Christianity will be dealt with capital punishment and
violence on the streets?

@Shuddha: It's not the question of rights. It's the question of enforcement
of these rights. Howsoever much Hussain may try, the state would never act
to ensure that the rights are enforced. And it's one thing to say Muslims
have rights to paint the Prophet in a 'negative' sense, it's another thing
doing it. Remember the protests in India over cartoons published in a
certain newspaper in a certain European country named 'Denmark'?

Rakesh