Kolkata: Jadavpur University has whitewashed the writing 'Remove ban on CPI (Maoist)’ that was painted on the walls of Triguna Sen auditorium on Tuesday. This comes after the higher education dept frowned upon the graffito and asked JU to wipe it at the earliest.
VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said, “No writing or expression should be made which is provocative, derogatory, offensive, prejudicial to national unity and integrity, or likely to be construed as ‘anti-national’, or which may create controversy.”
Terming the graffito “highly objectionable” on Monday, he had said that it will be removed from the walls. “This makes no sense on the JU campus because we did not ban them. A nation-wide ban has been implemented on them from the ministry of home affairs,” he had said. ABVP, too, on Sunday objected to this slogan being “anti-national” and urged the university to remove it.
A campus source said, “The university authorities ordered the general maintenance section to erase it from the walls at the earliest. The maintenance section asked the contractor to whitewash it. It was done on Tuesday morning before students arrived on campus for classes.”
TOI had written that the state has reportedly told JU that any graffiti with “links to foreign countries” — Cuba, China, Russia — will not be encouraged and may be dealt with sternly, prompting the campus authorities to consider forming a committee to check the wall paintings and decide what is “acceptable and what is not”. “The state stance is that quotes and poems by writers associated with foreign countries, such as Cuba, China and Russia, should be avoided,” said a higher education official. “Instead, students must focus on our national icons and their works for graffiti.”
ABVP JU unit spokesperson Subhajit Saha said, “ We welcome this move. Removal of these anti-national graffiti has been our long-standing demand. We would urge the authorities to ensure that graffiti that challenge the national spirit of the country should not be there on the campus.”
Chemical engineering student Nabab said, “The campus and its walls are spaces for its diverse thoughts, philosophies, politics, academics and science. Not everything is written to directly address the university authorities; many things are written as a way of expressing our thoughts. When we write “Free Palestine”, we aren’t demanding that the university authority should free Palestine. It is simply a medium of expressing our thoughts and we will continue to write our thoughts on campus walls.”
JU started the clean-up drive to whitewash “offensive” graffiti on Saturday after CM Suvendu Adhikari’s ultimatum. Among the graffiti that were removed were slogans against Fascism, graffiti advocating freedom for Palestinian, ‘Long Live Comrade Kishenji’, a portrait of Sharjeel Imam and American poet and civil rights activist Audre Lorde. However, students started reclaiming the walls from Sunday night and Monday by painting graffiti and writing slogans.