Kolkata: The ticket counter of Academy of Fine Arts got a fresh coat of saffron on Wednesday — its third colour change in a span of 31 days — encapsulating in around 200 square feet of space what colour revolutionaries on both sides called “the fight over Bengal’s soul”.Around 50 right-wing activists, led by BJP’s Shibpur MLA and Tollywood personality Rudraneel Ghosh, arrived at the complex on Cathedral Road around 3 pm armed with four cans of saffron paint. They then proceeded to paint the ticket counter, saffron-washing the whitewash the edifice got barely 24 hours ago. Ghosh, an actor-turned-politician, is also the chairperson of Assembly’s standing committee on information, culture and sports and youth services.“Originally this room was saffron-and-chocolate. We have restored the saffron. Saffron is the colour of sacrifice. It is the colour worn by Swami Vivekananda and by our saints, sages and maharajas. It has nothing to do with politics, yet you object to that colour. Do you object to saffron because jihadi forces dislike it?” Ghosh asked after the paint job at the same spot where around 200 “theatre activists” had converged on Tuesday afternoon and painted the ticket counter white, covering the saffron coat the structure had got 30 days ago on July 12.The ticket counter, old-timers at Academy said, had always been a shade of white and terracotta since they could remember.The July 12 saffron coat was the first colour change that Academy, one of the country’s oldest fine arts exhibition centres, had got after the recent regime change in the state. Prominent actors, directors, playwrights and theatre workers including Bibhash Chakraborty and Chandan Sen condemned the act and wrote to the state govt, Academy trustee board and Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya calling it an artistic distortion of a heritage space.Bengal BJP president said in response that the party will not tolerate any “overreach” by a section of “ultra BJP”. After the second saffron coat on Wednesday, Ghosh retorted, “Bhattacharya was not told the truth.”Ghosh blamed Academy’s Left-backed working committee for harassing and destroying the trustee board. “There has been no renovation. There is rampant corruption and the Left has no problem with it. They came here clearly to strengthen CITU. They have illegally occupied four rooms,” he alleged.The ticket counter had seen intrusions even during the Trinamool regime with former minister Madan Mitra holding INTTUC meetings there.CPM functionary Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee, who was part of the group that applied the white coat of paint on Tuesday, said, “BJP and Rudranil Ghosh are not aware of the history of Bengal theatre movement and the Academy. In the name of protecting Hinduism, they are destroying the religion. Otherwise, why would they suddenly paint it saffron immediately after the change of regime? Mamata Banerjee had filled this Academy premises with her own pictures. What is the difference between the two parties? We had painted the structure white keeping in tune with the original colour scheme of the premises. We never painted it red.”Academy of Fine Arts was founded in 1933 by Lady Ranu Mukherjee, a prominent arts patron and cultural icon in Kolkata’s intellectual circles in the early 20th century. It started its journey from a single room at Indian Museum and went on to become a premier visual arts institution and cultural hub.
