‘Only Lesser Artists make Political Statements’

Why do you have this fascination for Indira Gandhi?
I haven’t portrayed her political views. This collection is an artist’s portrayal of her. Just the way I did Mother Teresa as the eternal mother and Madhuri Dixit as the eternal enchantress. My favourite of all my Indira Gandhi paintings is Ekla chalo, ekla chalo. I like it so much that I’ve kept it for myself.

Why is it special?
Because a woman always has to be independent if she wants to do anything.

So is Mrs Gandhi your ideal of the independent woman?
I’m not painting ideals. Independence is just a facet of her personality. In our tradition we have Shakti and I see Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Madhuri Dixit as facets of Shakti and icons of Indian womanhood.

Why are you so drawn to Shakti? You even painted Indira as Durga.
Like most artists, I too am drawn to sources of mysterious power. And that’s what Durga is. Durga, like Joan of Arc, is universal. They are both metaphors for strength and power.

So isn’t it ironical that Mrs Gandhi, who you portrayed as Durga, a source of strength, also suppressed assertions of strength?
What did she manage to suppress? I think the most evil force that ever emerged in the 20th century was Hitler, but even about him one can ask, what did he suppress? How much? For how long?

What about the Emergency?
I’m not making any political statement. I’m only making a visual statement.

But your portrayal of Mrs Gandhi as Durga during the Emergency — wasn’t that a political statement?
I’m not the only one who said it. Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee said so. If I was making a political statement then I would have shown her face, which I did not do.

But during your tenure in the Rajya Sabha…
(interrupts) What did I do? I did not say a word. People criticised me for it but I did not because making political statements was not my job. I was there as a painter.

But isn’t that the point of Rajya Sabha seats for artists? That the Indian polity assumes artists must make political statements?
It is not the job of artists to make political statements. Tell me one prominent Ustad who has made or makes a political statement through his music or art. Name one prominent artist. Only lesser artists do so.

Among the younger generation, you have writer Arundhati Roy’s repeated political statements. She has written on the nuclear issue, the Narmada Bachao Andolan. She says it’s her job to do so.
Ah, but for the writer it is different. They use words and therefore they can make political statements. Writers yes, but not other artists. Not even poets.

In the years since you donated these 19 Indira Gandhi paintings to her son Rajiv, had you seen them?
I meant it for the Indira Gandhi Memorial. Soon after the assassination, they were exhibited for a month. After that, I thought they were lost. Then Moni Malhotra (Manmohan Malhotra, general secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation) contacted me a few months back and asked me about them. They had been thrown somewhere. They had been torn and damaged. It reflects on the person who was the earlier head. Just because they were not interested in modern Indian art they had been thrown there.

You mean the earlier head of RGF or Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust?
I don’t want to say. You know, it was like when Rembrandt was commissioned to paint ‘The Nightwatch,’ and it ended up being too large for the wall for which it was intended. So the people who were putting it up cut a bit on either side to fit it into the wall. That’s what happens when people don’t appreciate art.

You’re clearly upset.
Of course. How would you feel if you donated your works to someone and they were treated like this? Anyway, Moni Malhotra understands art. He had earlier bought a work of mine on instalments. He spent considerable money to get my paintings on Indira Gandhi restored.

Where is the painting of Indira as Durga made during the Emergency?
I didn’t portray Indira as Durga. I just showed a woman on a tiger and called it Mother India. It was the Press which decided it was Indira, and they went on and on about it.

Why is that painting not in this exhibition? Where is it?
It’s in the collection of Badri Vishal Pittie in Hyderabad. But why are you interrogating me about this? I thought this interview was about the exhibition at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Why are you interrogating me about that painting?

So you don’t want to talk about your painting of Indira as Durga?
Why should I? And I told you it was not Indira as Durga. I want to talk only about the paintings being shown at the RGF exhibition. Why should I talk about anything else?