Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers repainted the old ticket counter at Kolkata’s heritage Academy of Fine Arts saffron on Wednesday, 24 hours after some prominent theatre personalities brushed coats of white paint over the saffron colour that Hindutva group members had applied on July 6.
The Academy of Fine Arts was established in 1933 by Lady Ranu Mukherjee and Maharaja Prodyot Kumar Tagore to promote Indian art. The old ticket counter is beside the main gate.
Leading the group of party workers who repainted the ticket counter on Wednesday afternoon, actor and BJP legislator Rudranil Ghosh targeted the CPI(M).
“The CPI(M) is desperately trying to retain control of its trade union wing, the Citu, over this heritage institution. Theatre personalities controlled by the CPI(M) have no respect for the saffron colour which symbilises sacrifice. They are not bothered by the condition of the art galleries which need renovation. They painted the room white without permissio from the trustee board,” Ghosh said.
On Tuesday, when people associated with the city’s theatre movement took up brushes dipped in white paint, thespian Chandan Sen said, “The ticket counter was terracotta-colored. We raised our voice and met Samik Bhattacharya (state BJP president) after some people painted the room saffron around July 6. He said he would get it repainted.”
To be sure, Bhattacharya told the media in July that he would take action against those who painted the old ticket counter saffron. “Painting things saffron at random is not the BJP’s culture. Identify those who did it and I will take action,” Bhattacharya said on July 12.
Neither Bhattacharya nor Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar could be contacted for comments on Wednesday.
Commonly referred to as just the Academy, the institution started in a small room at the Indian Museum on Chowringhee Road and shifted to its current location beside St Paul’s Cathedral in the 1950s with help from the then chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Apart from a special gallery featuring some personal artefacts and manuscripts of Rabindranath Tagore, the works of masters such as Gaganendranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Ramkinkar Baij, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Nandalal Bose are preserved at the galleries.
The auditorium, where the state’s annual theatre festival has been held since 1984, once witnessed stalwarts such as Sambhu Mitra and Utpal Dutt staging some of their masterpieces.