Graffiti News

Messages on the same walls expressed opposing positions

Competing political messages appeared on walls at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in India, according to Times Now. The outlet described visuals shared from the campus showing existing graffiti being covered or changed, with additional wording appearing on the same surfaces. Its account does not give calendar dates for the individual inscriptions or establish when each photographed change took place.

Times Now identified earlier messages calling for Umar Khalid's release and expressing support for Naxalbari. The outlet reported subsequent wording opposing Khalid's release, alongside an ‘Akhand Bharat’ message and the slogan ‘Stop Love Jihad’. A further inscription, according to the report, used large black lettering to issue a message against harassers.

The report presented these markings as competing political expressions. It did not independently establish who made the new inscriptions or the full order in which they appeared. The visible changes therefore support a description of overwritten messages, while responsibility for the individual interventions remains unresolved in the account.

Political portraits did not establish who put up the posters

Posters featuring Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Congress member of parliament and former JNU professor Akoijam also appeared, Times Now reported. The outlet included the posters in its account of political messaging across the campus, alongside the altered slogans. It did not identify the people responsible for putting them up.

The presence of a politician's image is distinct from evidence that the politician commissioned or authorised a poster. Times Now's account supplies no such attribution for Gandhi or Akoijam. Nor does it connect the posters' makers to the people who added the new graffiti. The reported material places the images and inscriptions within the same campus dispute without establishing a shared organiser.

The same distinction applies to the sequence of changes. Times Now described later markings as appearing to alter or obscure some earlier slogans, but said the sequence could not be independently established from the visuals. An image can show that a surface has changed without identifying every person involved or dating every layer of writing.

The university's response concerned the earlier graffiti

JNU's administration said it had taken notice of the earlier pro-Khalid and pro-Naxalbari slogans and was examining the matter, according to Times Now. The administration also said it would not tolerate attempts to disrupt peace on campus. The response described in the report followed those earlier inscriptions.

The JNU unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) objected to the slogans and sought action against those responsible, the outlet reported. The organisation also raised concerns about allegedly objectionable remarks beside a portrait of V. D. Savarkar. That characterisation belongs to ABVP; the account does not provide the wording or a separate finding establishing the allegation.

Times Now said it remained unclear whether the university had opened a separate inquiry into the newer messages or identified their authors. The earlier administrative statement consequently does not establish an investigation or disciplinary outcome for every later inscription. The report supplies neither a confirmed author for the new graffiti nor a finding resolving responsibility.

Overpainting made the wall itself part of the dispute

The distinctive feature in Times Now's description is that opposing messages occupied and altered the same surfaces. For readers following writing in public space, that layering helps explain how one visible statement can obscure another. A photograph records a particular condition of the wall; it does not, by itself, provide a complete account of the actions behind it.

Times Now also mentioned a separate controversy at Jamia Millia Islamia, where Kashmir-related and Sharjeel Imam-related slogans were reported during student protests seeking restoration of the university's students' union. The outlet placed that episode alongside the JNU dispute as another campus controversy over political messages. It did not establish common authorship or coordinated action between the two universities.

The JNU report gives no precise wall locations, visitor route or campus access arrangements. The inscriptions therefore come with no documented public viewing itinerary or status as commissioned public artworks. Readers exploring murals and other wall-based expression elsewhere can consult Wallscape's map.

Source: Times Now