Old Incident of Lord Krishna’s Derogatory Painting Shared as New
The painting in question is no longer on display and the incident is actually from 2015.
A photo of a painting by an Assam-based Muslim artist showing Hindu deity Lord Krishna surrounded by women in bikinis is going viral with a misleading claim that the it is being displayed at the State Art Gallery in Guwahati.
However, we found that this incident of the painting being displayed is from 2015 and the painting is no longer on display.
CLAIM
Many people shared this painting, expressing outrage at a Muslim painter by the name of Akram Hussain depicting Lord Krishna in this manner.
Alluding to the violence in Bengaluru, which reportedly happened over a derogatory cartoon about Prophet Muhammad, users asked the government to take appropriate action.
We found that the claim along with the photo of the painting was going viral.
We found that many prominent people had also shared the claim. NewsNation TV Consulting Editor Deepak Chaurasia tweeted the claim on 17 August. His tweet had 6,800 comments and retweets and 20,600 likes at the time this story was published.
Media commentator Arun Pudur also shared the photo with the same message.
Writer and academic MadhuPurnima Kishwar retweeted Pudur’s tweet expressing her outrage.
We also found the claim to be viral on Facebook.
More such posts on Facebook can be seen here and archived here.
WHAT WE FOUND
On running a keyword search, we came across an article dated 17 August by The Times of India, which said that ISKCON had asked for action against the artists for his ‘objectionable painting’ after the posts went viral. However, we also found that the report stated clearly that the painting was done in 2015 by an art student.
Further, we ran more searches and came across a report from 2015 by The Indian Express, which spoke about the incident in question.
Speaking to the paper, Guwahati Police DCP Amitabh Sinha had said, “Yes, we have registered a case on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Hindu Jagaran Mancha on Friday in which the organisation has complained that the artist, one Akram Hussain, had depicted Krishna in an offensive manner.”
The report also said that the painting had been removed and the artist had also apologised.
We also found a tweet by Guwahati police in which they had clarified that the incident was from 2015 and that the painting was no longer on display.
It may be mentioned here that both Chaurasia and Pudur later tweeted updates regarding the arrest after Guwahati Police took to Twitter. However, their original misleading tweets remain untouched.
It is clear then that an old incident has resurfaced in the aftermath of the Bengaluru violence and is being shared misleadingly as a recent one.
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