Citizens of Mumbai protest against arrest of art student in Baroda

MUMBAI: It wasn’t just artists and activists that turned out at the Jehangir Art Gallery in protest against the arrest of Baroda-based art student Chandramohan, on Monday evening.

Mumbai’s business community too had its presence there. Harry Singh Arora, the president of Rotary Club of Bombay, asked: “Would we have a Khajuraho in such a situation? We cannot let fundamentalist forces rule our country.”

Anil Dharker, editor of Arre magazine, a magazine dedicated to literary arts, said: “This does not affect just the artists, but writers as well, all of us will be affected.

Without freedom of expression in the arts, we will become a soulless society. What was depicted this time, the human body, has been depicted throughout India’s art history.” Meanwhile, Chandramohan was released on bail on Monday.

A railway engineer who came over from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to show his support, said that he had to contribute in whatever way he could for this cause, as he believes that such moral policing was an indicator of things to come if left unchecked.