NDMC paints over graffiti at Jantar Mantar after protest
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) workers on Sunday painted over the graffiti-covered walls around Jantar Mantar, erasing the visual imprint of the student-led protest that forced the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Till Saturday evening, the white boundary wall of the Imperial Hotel lining Tolstoy Marg had ceased to be just another stretch of Lutyens’ Delhi. It had become a canvas of anger.
Walls in and around Jantar Mantar, gates and even tree trunks bore layer upon layer of graffiti, slogans, sketches and signatures, turning the street into a live exhibition of a generation’s rage against the perceived failures of the NDA Government.
The graffiti reflected the vocabulary of a protest driven largely by young people — irreverent, sardonic, often profane and unconstrained by conventional political messaging. References to “godi media”, calls for “revolution”, invocations of B R Ambedkar and direct attacks on senior functionaries of the government sat alongside doodles and memes.
Spray-painted in bright colours, the graffiti ranged from the political to the personal. “Democracy is premium” and “R’evol’ution” appeared alongside the anti-fascist anthem “Bella Ciao”, Gen Z’s declaration that it “keeps grudges”, and the Gandhian invocation, “Hamla chahe jaisa bhi ho, haanth hamaara nahin uthega.”
Many messages targeted the RSS, demanding that it be “banned”, while others thanked Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for raising the voice of the student protesters.
