Saffron, white, saffron: Why Kolkata’s Academy of Fine Arts is caught in BJP vs Left paint war

Subsequently, some of the Left intellectuals, led by renowned theatre actor Chandan Sen, met Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya to protest against the Academy’s ticket counter room being painted saffron and to urge him not to politicise the institution. Samik then said: “Those who have done it (painted it saffron), have made a mistake. The politics of changing colours is not the BJP’s goal. Painting everything everywhere is not part of the BJP’s agenda. You identify them, and we will take action.”

BJP activists painted the colour of a room of the Academy, used as its ticket counter, saffron in apparent deference to the new regime. (Express)

Nearly a month later, on August 11, a group of Left activists and theatre artists went to the Academy and changed its ticket counter room’s paint from saffron to white. They were accompanied by CPM leader and ex-MP Bikash Bhattacharya, a lawyer. The police personnel from the local Hastings police station were also deployed there to avert any untoward incident.

A day later, however, a group of BJP workers led by the party’s Shibpur MLA Rudranil Ghosh, who is also a film actor and director, gathered at the Academy premises and repainted the ticket counter room saffron amid chants of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram”.

Addressing the BJP workers, Ghosh claimed: “You can see here in photograph that the original colour of this ticket counter was saffron with chocolate border. We just want to restore this old colour which was changed by the previous TMC government. But some Left intellectuals are trying to fool people and trying to put red flags here. They never said a single word on the developments at the Academy earlier (during the TMC rule). When its administration did wrong things, then these artists never protested.”

Ghosh also alleged that Samik was “wrongly briefed” by the Left intellectuals. He said, “Samik Babu had given a call to free politics. We are following that path. If the color changes again, it will be turned saffron once more. Why are you speaking in anti-India tones, when India’s favourite colour is saffron? They misled Samik Bhattacharya. He is a busy man. No one told him what colour was here before.”

On his part, Samik said, “First some people hung red flags there. Others then painted an Academy room saffron. Then, some intellectuals came to me. I assured them, no political activity will be held at the Academy. Even after that, why CPM went there, why Bikash Bhattacharya went there? They changed the colour again. Naturally, if there is an action, an equal reaction should be there. We are against putting saffron colour on every installation because saffron is colour of sacrifice.”

Thespian Chandan Sen maintained that the ticket counter room was “never saffron and was originally terracotta-coloured”. He said: “We wrote to the state government, BJP state president and the trustee board of Academy of Fine Arts after this room was painted saffron. BJP state chief called us. Our delegation sat with him. He sought 15-day time. When he did not do anything even after 15 days, we decided to do something and so it was painted white.”

Targeting the BJP over the row, Left filmmaker Kamaleswar Mukherjee said in a social media post: “No political opinion or ideology can be established by brute force.”