Graffiti News

West Bengal has ordered an investigation into graffiti inside a university hostel

Suvendu Adhikari, chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, directed university authorities and the state's Principal Secretary of the Higher Education Department on 24 August 2026 to investigate wall graffiti and drawings inside the Arts Division Boys Hostel at Jadavpur University in Kolkata. According to The Indian Express, Adhikari wrote on X that the Chief Minister's Office had received "concerning videos and photographic representations" through its grievance cell from students reporting "objectionable, sociopathic, violent and Anti-National wall graffiti & drawings inside the Arts Division Boys Hostel premises."

He added that "Educational Institutions are sacred spaces of learning, academic excellence and nation-building" and that "under no circumstances will campus premises be permitted to be used as platforms for spreading deranged propaganda and Anti-India sentiment." The directive asked for an "immediate inquiry by conducting an on-ground physical verification of the Arts Division Boys Hostel area to identify the individuals involved."

The order followed a clash on campus

The directive arrived in the middle of an ongoing dispute at the university. The Indian Express reported that a general meeting of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union led to a clash early on Thursday 20 August 2026 between supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the Students' Federation of India, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Several students were injured, and each side accused the other of bringing outsiders onto campus.

Vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said the university's police complaint over arson on campus was delayed because he could not reach the campus immediately after the unrest, and that the complaint was filed on 21 August, leading to multiple police reports. Kolkata Police sources told the paper that footage from around 60 CCTV cameras would be collected.

Accounts of the same campus differ sharply

Hours before issuing the directive, Adhikari told a press conference that "normal classes have been held at Jadavpur University. There is no problem there." He also said that "things like Red Salute to [Maoist leader] Kishenji will not be allowed on the campus," and announced he would visit the campus the following Friday.

Mamata Banerjee, the former chief minister and leader of the Trinamool Congress, said on Facebook Live that "the BJP created mayhem at Jadavpur University," adding: "Even though I may have differences of opinion with Jadavpur students, I respect them."

A six-hour meeting of all stakeholders called by the vice-chancellor ended without agreement on the night of 24 August. An SFI member said afterwards: "We were speaking to the vice-chancellor. He listened to us only halfway and suddenly wanted to leave." The same day the ABVP marched from Golpark to the 8B bus stand in Jadavpur under the banner "Save Jadavpur, Save Education," while the SFI marched from Sealdah to College Street. The university gates were locked from the inside, with three layers of security outside.

Nobody has published what the graffiti actually says

The most striking gap in the coverage is the graffiti itself. The Chief Minister's Office described the drawings and writing as objectionable, sociopathic, violent and anti-national, but The Indian Express account does not describe what is painted on the hostel walls. The only specific content Adhikari named was a reference to a "Red Salute" to the Maoist leader Kishenji.

The argument is therefore being conducted, outside the campus, over a surface that almost nobody arguing about it has seen. What is known about those walls comes from the people who photographed them and filed the images as a complaint, and from those who describe the same walls as ordinary political expression.

Walls inside institutions are always a question of who decides

Street walls and institutional walls work differently. On the street, an owner or a council decides what comes off. Inside a residence hall, walls are in practice looked after by the people who live there, which is why an instruction arriving from outside lands as more than a repainting order.

That is the part of this directive worth noting. It asks for physical verification of an area in order to identify individuals. The thing to be removed is a drawing. The thing to be investigated is a group of people.

Wallscape takes no position on which account of Jadavpur University is accurate, or on whether the drawings should stay. What survives on a wall, and who gets to decide, is a question this site follows wherever it appears.

What is left once a wall is repainted

A painted wall leaves nothing behind once it is covered. Whatever happens to the hostel walls at Jadavpur University, the surviving record of them may end up being complaint attachments and CCTV footage.

If you want to see how walls are changing where you live, the Wallscape map and feed hold street work as people photograph it.