Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday organised a mass poster-making drive on the campus to protest against the “censorship” on posters on brick walls that JNU is synonymous with. The students said “JNU’s walls speak, debate and dissent with you. At JNU, walls are not just walls, they are spaces of democracy, academics and art.”
The All India Students’ Association, one of the organisations that took part in the creative protest, said: “JNU’s wall posters and wall paintings are popular, loved and cherished by students, teachers, workers and others not only within the campus but also are internationally acclaimed. Those walls have communicated with visiting Ambassadors, High Commissioners, bureaucrats, professors, politicians, head of the State and who is who of the world.”
The students took up the protest as the JNU administration in its effort to spruce up the campus before the start of the new session started clearing the walls to “beautify” the campus.
JNUSU president Sai Balaji said that numerous stories were written in the national and international media, and dissertations and thesis written by students researching the contributions the walls had for society. But today the attack on them shows how much the administration “trembles at their presence”.
‘Fear of creativity’
“These walls have become mirrors of oppression, exploitation and injustice. The censorship shows how much they fear creativity of young minds and freedom of students to speak their mind through art, words and paintings,” he added.
JNUSU plans to hold a march on July 23 to paste these posters on the walls and has appealed to all the students to join them in their effort to condemn the “censorship”.
The university in a reply from the Office of the Director, Swachh JNU, has sent a circular saying that pasting posters on the walls would be in violation of the provisions of the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act 2007, and the decision was taken by the JNU Executive Council in March 2018. It has warned students that if they deface the walls, they would render themselves liable for action/penalty.
