Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday painted the face of a woman in fetters with tears rolling down her cheeks and “NO” written in her eyes to depict how citizens would be chained because of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register.
The chief minister called the new citizenship regime a “disgrace for any civilisation” and urged everyone to oppose it.
Mamata painted on one of the 43 canvases placed in front of the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road on Tuesday.
“The CAA is a disgrace to the civilisation, so everyone must oppose it. We want a united India, a united Bengal. All the canvases are sending this message,” Mamata said after finishing her painting in about 15 minutes on Tuesday afternoon.
“Unity in diversity is our strength. To break is easy, but to create is tough,” the chief minister said, alluding to the creation of artists.
The face that Mamata painted had reddened eyes and tears rolling down from both eyes. Rings under the face suggested the fetters that had chained the woman. The letter “N” was painted in one of the eyes and the letter “O” in another.
Above the eyes was written CAA and below, on two corners of the 2.5X2.5ft canvas, were written “NRC” and “NPR”.
At times, she said, protesting without speaking could be stronger than what could be achieved by words. “Protesting through drawing on the canvas is a stronger protest. Artists across India should peacefully voice their opinion on this issue,” she said.
Abhijit Mitra, who called himself a “painter-activist”, made an installation. A hand holding a stick that tore into a copy of the Constitution signified the assault on the guiding principles of the nation.
“I have also replaced the words “gan” in the expression Jana Gana Mana with the picture of a gun. I have tried to show that in our country ganatantra (democracy) has been replaced by gun-tantra (rule of the gun),” Mitra said.
Among the 43 artists who wielded the paintbrush at the protest venue were Jogen Chowdhury and Suvaprasanna. The chief minister requested Suvaprasanna to organise an exhibition where the paintings could be displayed.
Chowdhury painted a human skull in the middle of a canvas whose edges had the colours of the Indian flag and Suvaprasanna painted a large fish gobbling up many small fish to suggest how “one powerful entity in the country is eating up everything else”.
