Rajasthan: Police officers removed after ruckus over cow art work

On Saturday, during the Third Jaipur Art Summit at JKK, within half an hour the plastic cow installation was displayed, a few right-wing groups and NGOs reached the spot and expressed their anger against the artwork made by artist Siddharth Kararwal. A few media reports claimed that police officials dragged artist Aneesh Ahluwalia by his hair along with another artist Chintan Upadhya to the police station after they protested the removal of the installation.

The police had ordered the organisers to bring down the inflated plastic cow, suspended mid-air with a balloon, and taken a couple of artists for “aggressive” questioning at a time the country is debating intolerance and associated matters such as cow protection.

“I am saddened by the incident that took place at [the Jawahar Kala Kendra] JKK yesterday”, Ms. Raje tweeted on Sunday and added that the Police Commissioner had extended an apology for the incident.

While the artistes said they only wanted to show what plastic does to cows, police differed. It was the opening day of the five-day art summit, he said.

However, an argument ensued and they were taken to Bajaj Nagar police station, where they were detained for almost three hours. Suraj Soni an activist, said, “What they want to prove with a hanging dummy of a cow?” “We had removed the installation and kept it in a store”. The row gained momentum when a plastic cow dummy was noticed hung high during the art summit in Jaipur. “The summit is on only till Wednesday”, he said. They have ignored that part completely.

Asked about the government’s stand on putting the installation up again, police commissioner Rao said the “government has no objection”. They were seen shouting slogans and were at loggerheads with the organisers and artistes. “We have urged the organisers to remove this installation as it might hurt the religious sentiments of the people”.

The summit, which began yesterday, has 250 artworks on display from India and overseas.

Last year, people were angry over a drawing of Lord Ganesha on a toilet pot. The first to be removed was British-Indian Kapoor, who recently wrote a scathing piece against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a British newspaper, before the full panel was given the axe.