Cow art: Two cops transferred for jumping the gun in Jaipur
JAIPUR: A day after two artists were detained for exhibiting a plastic cow tied to a balloon, the Jaipur police on Sunday transferred two of its personnel “for mishandling the situation”.
A controversy erupted on Saturday over the dummy of a cow, which was hooked to a balloon, being set afloat at a height of 50 feet over the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK), a centre of cultural and artistic activities.
Half an hour after the mid-air art installation was displayed on the inaugural day of the five-day Third Jaipur Art Summit, animal rights activists as well as members of a right-wing organisation reached the spot and asked the organisers to dismantle it. The installation was created by artist Siddharth Kararwal.
An official said on the condition of anonymity that police personnel from the Bajaj Nagar police station, under which the JKK premises fall, went to the art summit and asked artists to take down the plastic cow as it was hurting people’s sentiments. “The SHO and a constable of Bajaj Nagar police station rushed to the spot,” he said.
“They detained artists Anish Ahluwalia and Chintan Upadhyay for stringing an image of the gaumata (cow) from a rope in an insulting manner,” he said. “The two artists were taken to police station for questioning, and later released after they agreed to dismantle the installation,” he continued.
“Two policemen, including Bajaj Nagar station house officer (SHO) Mahendra Gupta, have been sent to the police lines for the manner in which they handled the dummy cow controversy,” said deputy commissioner of police, Jaipur (east) Kunwar Rashtradeep. “It is too early to say whether we showed lack of maturity over the issue, but an inquiry has been set up and we will take action soon.”
A summit organiser said the police action was “an attack on free speech”. “We have created this event to support free art, and such action by the police shows Jaipur in a bad light,” said Vidhyasagar Upadhyay, an organiser at the summit.“It has become clear that we were not at fault, and the policemen were. That’s why they have been reprimanded.”
Art lovers also expressed shock at the manner in which the police acted. “The police should have respected the creative liberty of the artists. The installation was hung at the art summit, so I don’t really understand what exactly offended the people,” said Jyoti Panwar, a resident. “If you don’t like creativity, then don’t visit the art summit.”
Two policemen, including Bajaj Nagar station house officer (SHO) Mahendra Gupta, have been sent to the police lines for the manner in which they handled the dummy cow controversy KUNWAR RASHTRADEEP, deputy commissioner of police, Jaipur