Reacting to the vandalisation of M F Husain's Mumbai apartment as a mark of protest against his depiction of Sita in the nude, city-based artist Bhupen Khakkar said, ``This kind of a reaction by any political party is totally baseless. How can people who do not even understand art have the right of destroying it.''

Such vandalism only gave rise to communal feelings among people, he said, adding, ``I don't think any work of art can be called vulgar. It is just a way of one's expression.''

Vasudevan Akkitham said, ``This act by political parties is just a continuation of what happened earlier.'' Admitting that there was a lot of confusion over the interpretation of modern art, he said, ``These acts by political parties are just gimmicks. They act not with the intention of hurting religious sentiments, but because they feel they are the protectors of religion .''

Officiating Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the M S University P D Dhumal said, ``This is something very terrible. Husain is one of the seniormost artists of the country. This kind of action is uncalled for, especially since the painting is an old one and was exhibited in Delhi some time ago.''

Such acts should be condemned, felt city-based artist Jaydev Thakore.However, Youth Congress leader Narendra Rawat was all praise for the hardline reaction, maintaining that no artist had the right to hurt the religious sentiments of any community. Members of the Sanskar Bharati too felt that works of such artists should be condemned and that they had no right to exhibit their works.

Municipal Councillor Aziz Dangiwala said that there were better ways of expressing one's opinion than Husain's way .