Kolkata: Jadavpur University’s general maintenance wing spent six hours on Saturday morning “cleansing” the campus of “offensive” graffiti, less than 24 hours after CM Suvendu Adhikari’s “It is either them or us, only one will remain” ultimatum.Among the wall art erased was a mural of Charlie Chaplin on the walls of Dr H L Roy Building near Gate No. 3, with the caption “Fascism is not to be debated. It is to be smashed.” Also removed were graffiti of a Nazi salute (a Nazi symbol on a suited man) with the text “Break Fascism with Red” on the wall of PG Science building, “Long Live Comrade Kishenji” outside the geography department, “Fascists do not deserve democracy. They deserve a bullet in the head” on the walls of Open Air Theatre, a portrait of Sharjeel Imam with the words “Chakka Jam is the solution, Not Sedition”, and a quote by Prophet Mohammad.A portrait of American poet and civil rights activist Audre Lorde along with her quote — “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own” — was also whitewashed. The lines are from Lorde’s 1981 speech, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”.Graffiti advocating freedom of Palestine fell to the clean-up drive. One artwork depicted a child wearing clothes in the colours of the Palestinian flag. To the child’s right were universal symbols of resistance and freedom — birds and broken fences — while at the centre was a fragmented drawing of an eye and a face, the lower half of which transitioned into the black-and-white chequered pattern of the keffiyeh, a traditional Middle Eastern headdress widely recognised as a symbol of the Palestinian national movement.A senior university official said, “The general maintenance section was assigned the task of removing the graffiti since we wanted to avoid further controversy. The whitewashing work was given to a contractor.”Four workers began the cleaning operation at Aurobindo Bhavan around 8 am. They then moved to different locations, including the electrical engineering department, the mechanical engineering department, Prayukti Bhavan, Gate No. 3, Central Library, PG Science building, Nazrul Bhavan and ended the day’s work at Open Air Theatre around 2 pm. A worker involved in the operation said: “We were asked to erase those graffiti that are offensive and somehow connected to Maoist ideology.”Among the graffiti that survived were a portrait of Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, the artist who documented the Bengal famine, a mural on menstrual destigmatisation with the words “We bleed proudly”, and Mao Zedong’s famous quote — “Women hold up half the sky” — which later became a recognised slogan for women’s empowerment and equality.On Friday, addressing a gathering about 200 metres from JU’s Gate No. 2, Adhikari had slammed Jadavpur University students for raising slogans such as “Kashmir mange azaadi” and “Red salute Kishenji” on campus. Questioning the context of the protests, the CM had said, “Are you chanting ‘Kashmir wants freedom’? Are you posting ‘Free Palestine’? Before speaking about Palestine, write ‘Free PoK’. When terrorists killed Hindus in Pahalgam and the Army eliminated them in ‘Operation Sindoor’, you said nothing.”Asking how JU students “mustered the audacity” to write “Red Salute Kishenji”, Adhikari said, “You are this desperate? Who is Kishanji? He is the one who burnt the Constitution of India. He used to give calls to boycott elections. You will give ‘red salute’ to this Kishenji, and we will allow you to do this while running the govt?” Kishenji or Mallojula Koteswara Rao was a top Maoist functionary killed by security forces in Jangalmahal in 2011.
