A picture of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which was part of a hoarding put up inside the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, has been found to be defaced. This act has triggered condemnation from the university’s vice-chancellor and the state education minister Partha Chatterjee, who has assured strict action against the vandals.
The poster in question was put up by the university’s teaching and non-teaching staff wing affiliated to the Trinamool Congress, thanking Mamata for granting Rs 100 crores to the university.
This though possibly angered someone, who proceeded to do this this to the poster:
As seen above the poster claims that Jadavpur University cares for Mamata as much as she cares for them. Below that, Mamata’s eyes and lips are blackened using black ink and graffiti mocking the message was also inscribed on it. The vice-chancellor called this act of vandalism as “very unfortunate” and claimed that this issue was being taken up with the students and faculty by the Executive Council.
While this episode played out, the vice-chancellor was confined to his office due to a sit-in organised by the university students, to protest against the attempt to dissolve student union.
Even though the Jadavpur university is in the limelight for this incident, this defacing business though is fairly common occurrence in the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In 2015, the JNU Students Union’s (JNUSU) joint secretary had alleged that left wing vandals had defaced at least 15 posters, which contained the obituary of late VHP leader Ashok Singhal. These black and white posters put up by the ABVP, portrayed Singhal as a “revered emperor of Hindu hearts”.
A JNU councillor had alleged in 2016 that the door of his room was defaced, and a sticker of a national flag was also allegedly torn. The website of the JNU’s central library has also been subjected to vandalism, with a hacker named “Black Dragon”, defacing it.
