Kolkata: In a midnight drive at Jadavpur University, around 20 KMC personnel entered the campus to whitewash several walls, marking the second phase of clean-up drive after university staff removed “objectionable” graffiti on Saturday.The drive followed chief minister Suvendu Adhikari’s ultimatum last Friday and his X post describing certain graffiti as “objectionable” and “anti-national”.KMC whitewashed a portrait of painter Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, graffiti depicting a kissing couple, a menstrual destigmatisation mural reading “We bleed proudly”, and Mao Zedong’s quote, “Women hold half the sky,” which had faced ABVP objections. Pandit Raghunath Murmu’s Al Chiki writings, anti-police profanity and a David Harley quote — “We have to build a society based on social and environmental justice, equality and cooperation” — were also erased.The operation also removed graffiti painted by students on Monday in protest against Saturday’s whitewash, including “Ideas are bulletproof”, “Long Live Resistance”, and a drawing of Porco from ‘Porco Rosso’ with “Better a pig than a fascist”. Karl Marx’s lines — “We have no compassion. And we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror” — were also erased. Lines from a Bengali poem about freedom fighter Pritilata Waddedar disappeared, though her portrait remained. Graffiti advocating freedom for Palestine survived.A campus insider said, “A large number of cops stood outside the gate no. 4. Around 20 KMC people with IDs entered the campus and carried on their drive from 12 am to 1 am.”VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said, “I was told by the govt on Tuesday to erase some other graffiti but I told them that it was not possible for us to whitewash graffiti on a regular basis as I do not have that much manpower or resources.”ABVP’s JU unit president Nikhil Das said, “We welcome the move as our demand to erase them has been met.”Sociology student Anubhab Gupta said it was “an attempt to eliminate our democratic spaces”.Chemical engineering student Nabab remarked, “Every whitewash wall will be our blackboard of resistance.”Senior Lalbazar officers said no police accompanied KMC workers inside JU.
