Saving art from babudom

Public money spent on art in PSUs disappear and no one is accountable for the loss

It all turned out to be a storm in a teacup after all, the Assam government’s attempt to replace Ramkinkar Baij’s sculpture of Gandhiji with another that resembled him better than India’s first modernist’s chose to represent him. The media hue and artists’ cries put paid to that attempt, but it isn’t the first and won’t be the last as long as babus are in charge of something they don’t understand, but whose views go a long way in deciding what is, or isn’t, art. So we have them choosing artists who become National Treasures to their detriment because, of