A group of miscreants created boisterous scenes in front of the government-owned Durbar Hall Arts Centre at noon on Wednesday when officials of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, which owns the arts centre, were making arrangements to keep the body of artist Asanthan for the public to pay homage.
Akademi Secretary Ponniam Chandran said that the Ernakulam Shiva Temple administration president P. Rajendra Prasad and local councillor K.V.P. Krishna Kumar had met him around the time, asking him not to bring the body for display in the courtyard of the arts centre, as the temple, situated over 50 metres away, had not closed for the day. “I tried to reason with them, but some 20 minutes later, a group of miscreants rushed in and destroyed a banner announcing the artist’s sad demise. They also vandalised other materials,” said Mr. Chandran, who is set to formally lodge a complaint with the police on Thursday.
After the ruckus, he called the police, but the miscreants insisted on not allowing the body to be carried through the front gate of the gallery. “Our issue was with them displaying the body in front of the gallery, as that would have desecrated the temple,” Mr. Prasad told The Hindu . “But the secretary was adamant. Later, the police came, and a solution was worked out as per which they brought the body to their campus through the eastern entry of the gallery and displayed it there,” he said.
When asked if the pathway to the gallery was under the ownership of the temple administration, Mr. Prasad said that the entire area was once owned by the temple. “But the gallery is located just about 50 metres from the temple and displaying a body there in the line of sight of the deity would be against the temple customs,” he insisted.
Asanthan, who was born Mahesh V.K., had died, aged 50, at a private hospital following a heart attack. A native of Ponekkara in Ernakulam, he had won several accolades including the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi awards and the C.N. Karunakaran Smaraka Award.
People from all walks of life paid tribute to the artist at Durbar Hall. CPI(M) district secretary P. Rajeev, Mr. Ponniam Chandran, art critic M.L. Johny, and artist T. Kaladharan attended a condolence meeting held on the gallery premise. The body was cremated at Edapally crematorium.
In the evening, artists and friends of Asanthan took out a march in the city protesting the disrespect shown to the body of the departed artist.
