Plastic cow art taken down, artists dragged to police, 'Bovine Divine' worshipped

The use of a dummy cow as a mid-air art installation to convey the message of saving the animal from eating plastic waste at a summit here created a controversy today with activists raising objection to it and forcing the organisers to pull it down.

The dummy made of plastic and hooked to a balloon was installed in the open area of the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK), a centre of cultural and artistic activities, and was floating at a height of around 200 feet which caught attention of activists who objected and called the police.

After the police picked up two persons for interrogation from the place, the organisers removed the dummy to pacify the activists.

Photo: Facebook/Chintan Upadhyay

"Two persons were taken to police station for questioning and were later released in connection with the matter.

Activists raised objection and demanded action against the artist and organisers but no FIR was lodged," Mahendra Gupta, SHO of Bajaj Nagar police station, told PTI.

"Message of the art work was clear that we should protect cows from plastic waste but some people objected and called police and two of our artists who argued with police were picked up," the event's organiser Vidhya Prakash said.

The installation was later pulled out of where it was stored and worshipped.

Photo: Facebook/Siddharth Karwal

After the issue, we removed that installation which was made by a local artist Siddharth Karwal. It was the opening day of the five-day art summit, he said.

"Cow is highly respected and the way they presented their art cannot be tolerated therefore we brought the matter to the notice of police," Suraj Soni, the activist who raised objection, said.

Last year also, the summit witnessed a controversy when an artist displayed his creation which was about Lord Ganesha on the toilet pot.