JOIN USElection mural on freshly painted wall draws criticism
A citizen group’s painstaking efforts to paint the wall of the Mehkri Circle underpass came to nought in a matter of days.
The Election Commission of India picked the wall to paint an eye-catching mural on voter awareness. Popular artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy and his team did the job on April 7.
Ironically, the wall had been given a fresh coat of paint just two days earlier. The Ugly Indian group had spent Rs 2 lakh pooled from CSR funds to paint the wall. Volunteers for the anonymous group started the work on March 30 and finished it on April 5. They used the themes of ‘Ambaari’ and ‘Gandaberunda’.
To the group’s surprise, a mural of voters standing in a polling queue has now been painted on the wall.
A volunteer for Ugly Indian praised the mural but said it could have been painted on some other wall. “An underpass is a place where vehicles usually do not stop. Motorists are too busy to stop by and see a mural there. They will likely miss it,” the volunteer said. “Ideally speaking, an underpass is not the place for painting murals. An underpass should have unique designs that are not distracting.”
D Randeep, Special Commissioner (Finance and IT), BBMP, said he wasn’t aware of the election commission’s decision to repaint the underpass wall. “The Ugly Indian group told me about having used CSR funds for painting the wall, but since the decision on the mural has been taken for voter awareness, nothing much can be done,” he added.
Ajay Nagabhushan M N, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, justified the painting of the mural, saying the commission had taken permission to colour a total of three underpasses, including the one at Mehkri Circle, as part of its voter awareness drive.
“We had planned a giant mural on the Public Utility Building, MG Road, but somehow that didn’t work out,” he added.
Nanjundaswamy, for his part, said election commission officials had approached him for the mural but clarified that he didn’t know that the wall had been recently painted.