Political murals and Kolkatans

Elections are here and the citizens know it’s time for their walls to get defaced. Civic sense and political wisdom don’t always gel, and hardly any political party in West Bengal would like to go to the polls before they have righteously and ruthlessly applied what they have so far known as their dearest democratic right—wall graffiti.

But the Election Commission’s order directing the political parties to take permission of house-owners before writing political messages on their premises has practically jolted the age-old prerogative. The number of wall-writings across the city looks visibly less this year compared to the past General Elections we can remember.

However, most Kolkatans are not sure; they don’t know if asking the political parties not to write on their walls would mean doing so at their own peril. As a result, many are silently putting their signature on the formats the political cadres gave them. Some are accusing the parties of violating the order after their walls have been defaced. And it’s not that the administration is not listening—at least three discrete instances of violation were exposed by a joint initiative of the Election Commission and Tollygunge police station recently.

Political parties are not happy—especially the Left Front members. Forward Bloc leader Barun Mukherji feels the issue has been overdone. “Wall graffiti is a minor issue and the EC seems to be only playing up its negative side,” he said. He does a bit of sugar-coating, too: “Let the law be imposed, but let there be some relaxations too.”

The Election Commission, however, is in no mood to offer relaxations. Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalaswami stated a couple of days back: “There is a code of conduct regarding wall graffiti on private premises and we want everyone to abide by it. Representatives of some parties have asked for graffiti without permission rule to be relaxed but we have told them that it can’t be done.” However, it’s not that political parties look forward to the Commission for sops, for the state administration, entrusted with the task of enforcing Commission’s ruling in this state, is not exactly looking vigilant. There have been many reports of serious violations, among them is one involving the CPIM heavyweight in Kolkata South, Rabin Deb.

When it comes to the debate whether political messages connect with the voters, there are those who firmly believe that they don’t, and they can’t influence. For many like Debashish Dutta—a resident of Haripada Dutta Lane, Tollygunge—wall graffiti can’t even convince a new voter, let alone change the political affiliation of a literate.

Says Dutta, “Those who are literate, and can separate wheat from chaff have their political opinion already formed, and no amount of graffiti can undo that. Hence, the efforts are wasted. It’s equally wasted by the illiterate who can’t read what’s written.”

There are also people who feel politically vindicated if their walls are written on by their favourite political parties. The walls then become a manifestation of their political belief. Instances are known where owners of illegal properties secured immunity by allowing wall graffiti. However, Mr. Setabuddin Khondekar, the councillor of Ward 94, stresses that wall graffiti are a great influence to floating voters—sometimes even to a large section of first-time voters whose opinions swing till the last moment.

A retired TISCO employee and social chronicler, Mr. Sanat Mukherjee rubbishes this explanation most emphatically: “The concept of floating voters is a myth midwifed by the Marxists. It erroneously refers to a minuscule section of people from diverse walks of life. Had such a section actually existed, the Marxists would covertly reach them speaking softly with an iron rod in hand. Hence, it’s word of mouth, as against murals, that educate them.”

There’s another issue at stake—political ego. If one party decides not to write, its rival(s) might try to take over the vacant wall space. Thus, it’s the dakhal (claim) that gives the parties a semblance of ubiquity.

And despite Barun Mukherji endorsing firmly that “Wall graffiti has been the staple of election campaigns in Bengal, just as huge cut-outs are common in the southern states,” the fact remains that cut-outs are removable, and they don’t exactly disfigure public properties. But wall graffiti stay on for years after the elections; often till the approach of the next round of elections, when they are whitewashed—only to be canvases for fresh wall campaigns.


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