Students associated with Left organisations repainted sections of the Kolkata campus on Sunday evening and Monday, including walls near the Open Air Theatre, after university authorities had erased several politically sensitive slogans on Saturday. The repainting was accompanied by calls to “reclaim” campus walls, turning an administrative cleaning exercise into a new confrontation over who controls public expression inside the university.
One of the fresh messages reproduced a quotation attributed to Marx: “We have no compassion, and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror.” “Free Palestine” and “Long Live the Resistance” were also painted on campus walls after being removed during the whitewashing drive.
The new Marx quotation drew an objection from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, whose Jadavpur University unit president Nikhil Das wrote to Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee after the graffiti appeared. The complaint added another layer to tensions between the ABVP and Left student organisations, which have already clashed on the campus.
Dilip Ghosh, a minister in the Bengal government, struck a different note from some of the criticism surrounding the graffiti. He said Marx’s philosophy was not banned and that people were free to quote him, even as the broader dispute continued over messages that the government and rival student groups regarded as objectionable.
Bhattacharjee said the university did not support a continuing cycle of writing and erasing political graffiti and wanted the campus kept clean. He said the administration had not removed every wall painting, but had targeted material that could hurt sentiments, while indicating that the same standard would be applied to organisations across the political spectrum.
The university’s maintenance wing had spent several hours on Saturday painting over slogans and images at different points on the campus. Among those removed were “Long Live Kishenji”, “Naxalbari is the path to Liberation”, “Free Palestine” and a message at the Open Air Theatre stating that fascists did not deserve democracy and deserved a bullet in the head.
A portrait of Sharjeel Imam with a message advocating a road blockade rather than sedition, as well as other political and religious graffiti, was also covered. University officials described the action as part of an effort to remove material considered offensive or politically sensitive, rather than a blanket prohibition on wall art.
The cleaning followed sharp criticism from Adhikari, who visited the Jadavpur area on Friday and publicly objected to slogans including “Red Salute Kishenji” and calls for “Azadi”. He argued that such messages had no place in a university he described as a centre of excellence and said his government would act against what he characterised as anti-national activity.
Adhikari also said the government intended to restore what he called nationalism at Jadavpur University and end a “threat culture” on the campus. His intervention came after clashes involving ABVP members and Left student groups had already heightened political scrutiny of the institution.
The Students’ Federation of India’s Jadavpur unit subsequently announced a “Reclaim Your Wall” programme, while other Left student activists joined efforts to repaint selected walls. Students involved in the exercise said wall writing had long been part of the university’s political culture and argued that removing slogans under government pressure amounted to restricting dissent.
