Jadavpur University students repaint whitewashed graffiti, call it a ‘reclaiming’ of campus walls

Students of Jadavpur University have repainted graffiti inside the campus of Jadavpur University that was whitewashed by the university administration after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari took exception to them.Freshly painted graffiti emerged on Monday morning, which the students claimed was an attempt to ‘reclaim’ the walls in the University. One of the freshly painted graffiti on Monday (August 31, 2026) quoted Karl Marx, saying, “We have no compassion/And we ask no compassion from you/When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror”. Graffiti quoting Urdu couplets and Ho Chi Minh were also repainted on the walls inside the university campus. In some freshly painted graffiti, students wrote the department and academic year. Art Against Oppression, a JU student cultural collective, has called on students to bring their brushes back to campus on Monday and Tuesday, and said that repainting of walls was both artistic expression and political resistance. Not only has the Chief Minister publicly expressed resentment against ‘anti-national’ graffiti, but he has also, in a social media post, highlighted some of them and urged the university administration to take action. Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said that walls inside the campus are the property of the university and he does not “encourage” political graffiti, though it has been a tradition of the university. “I request those who are engaging in political graffiti to rethink what is the utility of it in the age of social media particularly in the age of social media. We will also have to look at whether there are other universities follow such traditions,” the Vice Chancellor said. Graffiti and poster culture have been prevailing at Jadavpur University for decades and have been inseparable from the politics of the university.Prof Bhattacharjee also added that “ Reclaim the Wall” call given by the students should not be seen in the same spirit as “Reclaim the Night”, a call given by civil society after the rape and murder of a doctor at city’s R G Kar Hospital in August 2024.Several graffiti inside the university campus were whitewashed on August 29 and August 30 after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari issued a stern warning to wean out “anti-national” elements from the campus. Graffiti in support of Palestine and Maoist leader Kishenji were among those which were whitewashed.Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary said that wall writings reflected public sentiment and could not be dismissed by simply erasing them.“Read what is written on the walls and understand what people are trying to say. The issue is not whether one agrees with a slogan, but whether people have the freedom to express their grievances and dissent,” the CPI(M) leader said.Jadavpur University had emerged as the flashpoint of the right versus left politics after a group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Supporters forced themselves inside the university premises on August 19 and tried to tear posters and burn flags of the Left student’s union. The university has been on the boil since then. Published - September 01, 2026 02:00 am IST