After whitewash, JU students give ‘reclaim the wall’ call
Times of India | 31 August 2026
Kolkata: Students at Jadavpur University on Sunday called for the campus walls to be reclaimed in response to a drive by the authorities to whitewash “offensive” graffiti on the campus, launched the day before following an ultimatum from CM Suvendu Adhikari.
The call followed a demand by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that JU continue its drive. The RSS-affiliate flagged at least six more graffiti that it considers objectionable.
Adhikari said the graffiti should have been erased much earlier. “Were the slogans in favour of the country or in the interest of education? What is Palestine? What is red salute for? How many innocent people were killed? Jnaneswari train was blown up (in 2010), 109 people (were killed). Twenty-seven EFR personnel were killed (in Shilda in 2010). You want me to remain CM and police minister and you will write ‘Kashmir Maange Azadi’!”
Bengal higher education minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay described the graffiti as “garbage”. JU, he said, has done what should have been done. “If they do not do it, the govt will get it done.”
Art Against Oppression (AAO), a cultural organisation comprising JU students, posted on social media on Sunday, “Pick up your brushes, pick up your paints. Build barricades, build resistance. Reclaim the walls. Across campus on Monday and Tuesday.”
Udita Bedajna, a JU student and member of AAO, said, “The walls of JU constitute a democratic space, where one can freely express oneself. They (ABVP) fear the walls and we want to prove that we are not intimidated. We will resist repression through art...”
Abhinaba Basu, secretary of SFI’s JU local committee, said, “We will take back our walls and paint resistance on Monday.” Indranuj Ray, of Revolutionary Students’ Front, said they, too, would start reclaiming the walls.
Late on Sunday, students started the “reclaiming” process. Where the authorities had whitewashed a slogan that read, “Fascists do not deserve democracy. They deserve a bullet in the head”, the students wrote quoting Karl Marx: “We have no compassion. And we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror.”
VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said the university would decide which artworks should be removed. Registrar Selim Box Mandal said, “A campus should not have controversial graffiti.”
Subhajit Saha, spokesperson for ABVP’s JU unit, said, “The authorities have removed some anti-national and objectionable graffiti. A few obscene and vulgar graffiti remains. There is no place for them in an educational campus. Our CM highlighted two such graffiti.”
The graffiti targetted by ABVP is spread across the campus. At the UG Arts and Science parking lot, a mural on menstrual destigmatisation bearing the words “We bleed proudly” sits alongside Mao Zedong’s quote, “Women hold half the sky”. Near Nazrul Bhavan, political expressions ranging from anti-police profanity and “Naxalbari zindabad” share space with a graffiti depicting a kissing couple alongside a portrait of artist Chittaprosad Bhattacharya.
Among other slogans that have drawn ABVP’s ire are “Remove ban on CPI (Maoist)” and “Long Live Comrade Madvi Hidma”.
Saha said ABVP has no issue with Chittaprosad’s portrait and welcomes creativity on campus. “But those advocating Maoist ideology and anti-national activities must be removed,” he said.
JU sociology student Anubhab Gupta said: “The kissing couple drawn beside Chittaprosad’s portrait is from one of the painter’s works. I fail to understand what they find obscene in it. Is it love that disturbs them?”
Targetting ABVP activists calling for the removal of graffiti, Gupta said, “The demand has exposed the mindset of people who claim to have no issue with Chittaprosad, but still label his artwork as obscene.”
History student Rijupalika Mukherjee said, “A woman talking about menstruation and her liberation should not be viewed as obscene. In a progressive society, people talk about menstrual hygiene to break the stigma. People who find the graffiti obscene has an anti-woman mindset.”
A senior professor at the university said many artworks on campus walls carry social messages. “They should not be removed... Some graffiti content has created controversy, but that doesn’t mean all graffiti is controversial.”