An obscene and derogatory painting of Hindu diety Lord Krishna is viral on social media platforms. The heavily circulated image show the objectionable and offensive painting. The captions and text along with image claim that an Assam based Akram Hussain painted this image insult Hindu religion and Lord Krishna. Almost everyone who saw the image was asking to arrest the painter yesterday.

On 17th August this painting caused massive outrage and furore on social media as netizens shared this image on twitter demanding arrest of the arrest of the artist. Many social media influencers, journalists and twitter verified handles retweeted the viral image giving it a political angle and communalizing the discussion about the incident and image even more.

Twitter

Arun Pudur, who’s twitter bio describes him as “Father, Husband, Son, Technopreneur, Philanthropist, Geo-Politics/Media Commentator & Activist to end Hinduphobia”. tweeted the controversial image with the caption:

“Akram Hussain, an Assam based Muslim ’Artist’ depicts Lord Krishna with Bikini Girls & this piece has been displayed in Gawhati Art Gallery. #BangaloreRiots for a FB comment. Praveen who expressed his FOE was arrested for hurting sentiments Will Akram be arrested for this?”

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He has 70.1k followers and this tweet got 4.2k retweets.

News Nation anchor Deepak Chaurasia tweeted claiming Akram Hussain exhibited an offensive picture of Hindu deity Krishna in a Guwahati art gallery.He tweeted –

“असम का एक पेंटर है अकरम हुसैन उसने गुवाहाटी आर्ट गैलरी रविन्द्र भवन में भगवान श्रीकृष्ण की एक आपत्तिजनक तस्वीर का विमोचन किया है। आप सभी को बैंगलोर घटना याद ही होगा ..फिर भी हम असहिष्णु है.!!ऐसे निंदनीय कृत्य करने वाले क्षमा योग्य तो नहीं है। #AkramHussain #BangloreRiots #Hindu“

Translation: “A painter, Akram Hussain has launched his objectionable painting on Lord Shre Krishna in Guwhati Art Gallery Ravindra Bhavan,   I’m sure you all remember Bengaluru riots, but we are the ones termed intolerant. The ones who do such condemnable deed shouldn’t be forgiven..”.

असम का एक पेंटर है अकरम हुसैन उसने गुवाहाटी आर्ट गैलरी रविन्द्र भवन में भगवान श्रीकृष्ण की एक आपत्तिजनक तस्वीर का विमोचन किया है। आप सभी को बैंगलोर घटना याद ही होगा ..फिर भी हम असहिष्णु है.!!ऐसे निंदनीय कृत्य करने वाले क्षमा योग्य तो नहीं है। #AkramHussain #BangloreRiots #Hindu

— Deepak Chaurasia (@DChaurasia2312) August 17, 2020

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Deepak Chaurasia got more than 8k retweets and 21.3k likes on his tweet.

Madhu Kishwar who is Founder of Human Rights foundation MANUSHI, and has been found sharing Fake News quite many times. She has 2 million followers on twitter also shared the post while tagging Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam police and CMO assam. She tweeted –

“This is outright offensive @AmitShah ji. #AkramHussain should be booked as also #GawhatiArtGallery They are free to depict their Prophet with 72 hoors but keep their dirty hands & minds off our sacred symbols and dieties! @assampolice @CMOfficeAssam”

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The same was tweeted by ISKCON Long Island, New York

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This tweet by the official Iskon handle got more that 11k retweets and 19.6k likes on twitter.

Shehzad Poonawallah  tagged the DGP of Assam and the Chief Minister’s Office to take action against Hussain.

 

Khemchand Sharma who is member of BJP IT cell and Social media campaign committee relating the issue with banglore riots and jihad.

We(Brajavasi) strongly condemn Akram Hussain 4 his Jihadi art in which he has shown world Savior #shrikrishna
with bikini girls.

Can he make similar art with #prophet_muhammad?

Why Sickular are silent, Seen them criticising Naveen & favouring #bangaloreriots#ArrestAkramHussain

— khemchand sharma (@SharmaKhemchand) August 17, 2020

ISKCON Kolkata vice-president and spokesperson Radharamn Das requested BJP MLA Himata Das to arrest Hussain.

His account has 26k followers while his tweet got nearly 5k  retweets and 7k likes. Smhoaxslayer discovered many other accounts which got a decent number of retweets. All of them can be found at the end of this post.

 

Prominent Newspapers Amar Ujala and Punjab Kesari also published the same news without mentioning the 5 year old incident.

Analysis

The obscene painting by artist Akram Hussain of Assam is 5-year old. He was arrested and painting was seized by Guwahati Police on 30th may 2015. 

This objectionable image was viral yesterday which angered many, many who didn’t know about this in 2015, and few who almost forgot about it. With this becoming viral again, it fueled their anger. This image caused a furore on Social Media in 2015 too

Pls refer to info shared by concerned citizens regarding an objectionable painting of Lord Shri Krishna. This incident is of 2015. Accordingly, Latasil PS Case No. 127/15 was registered, accused Akram Hussain arrested on 30/5/2015 & painting seized. It is not on display now.

— Guwahati Police (@GuwahatiPol) August 17, 2020

Guwahati police clarified that this entire incident happened 5 years ago. There were some speculations regarding why this painting was revived and went viral after Bangalore riots. A lot of people started spreading hate on social media due to the revival of this painting.

FIR Registered in April 2015 –

We hv registered FIR at Silchar P.S. against Akram Hussain for painting Nude Shri Krishna.
Case no.889 u/s295(A)/34. pic.twitter.com/sAfqKrQkUt

— Legal Eagle (@TetraLegal) April 10, 2015

 

Indian Express reported the incident in April 2015

 

Deepak Chaurasia just retweeted the tweet by Guwahati police stating this was an old incident.

गुवाहाटी पुलिस के मुताबिक ये घटना 2015 की है। पेंटिंग जब्त कर आरोपी अकरम हुसैन को 30/5/2015 को गिरफ्तार कर लिया गया था।#AkramHussain #Assam https://t.co/nfx7eCdnJm pic.twitter.com/uDFGSzBpRL

— Deepak Chaurasia (@DChaurasia2312) August 17, 2020

Official ISKON organization account thanked the police for clarification.

Akram Hussain was arrested, Thanks for the Clarification. Hare Krishna @GuwahatiPol https://t.co/f5XWshRh78

— Iskcon,Inc. (@IskconInc) August 17, 2020