Kolkata’s Damnatio memoriae moment

Almost 2,000 years agone successful past Rome, aft an emperor was removed unceremoniously, busts, statues, and portraits of the ruler were destroyed. Called damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory), it was the past Roman equivalent of cancel culture. The signifier of damnatio memoriae was utilized by the Senate to officially erase a disgraced oregon deposed emperor from history.

In the past period and the contiguous one, pursuing the autumn of communist regimes, the toppling of Saddam Hussein successful Iraq successful 2003, and the alteration of authorities led by Sheikh Hasina successful Bangladesh successful 2024, statues representing the fallen rulers were pulled down.

On June 1, 2026, arsenic 35 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were being administered the oath of bureau arsenic Ministers astatine Lok Bhawan successful Kolkata, a 70-foot statue of footballer Lionel Messi was removed from a salient intersection successful the city. It signified the illness of the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year tenure successful West Bengal. Along with it, hoardings and posters of leaders of the erstwhile authorities disappeared overnight. Kolkata began to look different.

The fibreglass-and-iron statue of Messi had go 1 of the city’s astir iconic landmarks. It was installed successful December 2025 during the shot legend’s “GOAT India Tour”. The Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, wherever the statue stood, hosts 1 of Kolkata’s astir iconic Durga Pujas, organised by the Sreebhumi Sporting Club.

Former West Bengal Fire Minister Sujit Bose, patron of the Durga Puja celebration, was the cardinal fig down the statue installation. Years earlier, erstwhile the Trinamool Congress authorities sought to alteration Kolkata into a London-like cityscape, Mr. Bose began installing themed structures astir the Durga Puja venue. A timepiece operation modelled connected Big Ben was among the installations astatine the site.

Headwinds, governmental and climatic

The illness of the Trinamool Congress authorities led to the downfall of respective enactment leaders, including Mr. Bose. A week aft losing the predetermination to the BJP’s Sharadwat Mukherjee, Mr. Bose was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate connected May 11 for his alleged engagement successful a municipal recruitment scam.

The governmental tempest and the nor’wester winds appeared to converge connected the statue. Swaying successful beardown winds, it had to beryllium secured with heavy-duty nylon ropes, portion barricades were erected to support radical and postulation distant from the site.

“We person noticed that the statue is swaying successful the wind,” Mr. Mukherjee had said earlier being sworn in. He added that the statue’s proximity to a engaged roadworthy and a subway made its removal difficult, but that the authorities planned to “remove the statue astatine the earliest opportunity”.

On June 1, erstwhile the statue was removed, Kolkata witnessed a tempest with gusts ranging from 60 kmph to 80 kmph. As cranes lifted the operation and transported it away, the spectacle resembled a country from Gulliver’s Travels. Against overcast skies, trucks carried the 70-foot statue done the streets of Kolkata, making surrounding buildings and structures look astir Lilliputian. The State Public Works Department has decided to support the statue astatine an undisclosed location.

Messi’s statue is not the lone casualty. Not acold distant stood different elephantine football-themed sculpture extracurricular Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium, besides known arsenic Yuba Bharati Krirangan. The installation, featuring elephantine muscular legs successful shot boots topped by a football, had been conceived by erstwhile Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The plan drew mixed reactions erstwhile it was installed. The operation was removed connected May 23.

“Such an ugly-looking statue does not marque sense. It is not aesthetically pleasing either. We volition not support specified a grotesque operation that has nary meaning, and it volition beryllium taken down,” West Bengal Sports Minister and BJP person Nisith Pramanik said. The Minister said the operation had been removed arsenic portion of efforts to beautify the Salt Lake Stadium precinct and quipped that the Trinamool Congress’s misfortunes had begun aft its installation.

In the weeks pursuing the alteration of authorities successful West Bengal, respective symbols associated with Trinamool Congress regularisation were removed. Some, specified arsenic the Messi statue and the Salt Lake Stadium installation, which Ms. Banerjee had conceived with sizeable fanfare, were dismantled. Others simply disappeared nether the screen of darkness.

Before May 4, ample cut-outs and hoardings of erstwhile Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could beryllium seen on astir each large thoroughfare successful Kolkata. These disappeared overnight. What peculiarly pained the erstwhile Chief Minister, however, was the removal of the Biswa Bangla logo she had designed from intersections crossed Kolkata and elsewhere successful the State.

Ms. Banerjee, who has besides pursued painting, designed a logo featuring the Bengali missive “B” connected a globe, symbolising “Biswa Bangla”, which astir translates arsenic “Where the World Meets Bengal”. Launched successful September 2013, the Biswa Bangla marque was conceived arsenic a awesome of Bengal’s chiseled taste identity. The logo appeared connected State authorities websites, infrastructure projects and adjacent authoritative correspondence issued by the erstwhile Chief Minister.

Speaking astir the removal of some the logo and the football-themed installations, Ms. Banerjee said, “I consciousness precise bad. I made that logo with the assistance of an artist, but I drew it myself... Seeing this (Messi’s statue), our younger brothers and sisters, sports lovers, took selfies. And FIFA, which held the U-17 World Cup matches astatine Salt Lake Stadium, appreciated it.”

Painting the municipality saffron

The removal of aged symbols has made mode for the Ashoka Pillar connected State authorities websites and astatine authoritative events.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced connected June 7 that the BJP authorities would conception a 125-foot statue successful honour of Bharatiya Jana Sangh laminitis Syama Prasad Mookerjee to people his 125th commencement anniversary.

The BJP authorities has besides announced that it volition observe June 20 arsenic Paschim Banga Dibas (West Bengal State Day). On that time successful 1947, Syama Prasad Mookerjee moved a connection successful the Bengal Legislative Assembly for Bengal’s partition, a measurement the Bharatiya Janata Party says paved the mode for the instauration of a “homeland for the Hindus of Bengal”. During the Trinamool Congress regime, Poila Baisakh, the archetypal time of the Bengali New Year, was observed arsenic Paschim Banga Dibas.

Amid the removal of symbols and statues, Kolkata’s colourscape is changing. From the Trinamool Congress’s signature blue-and-white strategy that dominated authorities offices and enactment establishments, the colours of nationalist buildings are progressively turning saffron. Soon aft the BJP’s victory, the West Bengal Assembly and Nabanna, the State Secretariat, began adopting saffron hues.

Some Trinamool Congress enactment offices person hurriedly repainted their premises saffron and erected BJP flags successful an evident effort to debar section ire. Such incidents person been reported crossed the State, but possibly the astir striking makeover occurred connected Debendra Chandra Dey Street, adjacent Kolkata’s Tangra area.

During the Trinamool Congress regime, section enactment workers had allegedly occupied a information of nonmigratory Jharna Kundu’s spot and constructed a enactment bureau there, she said. “After May 4, they painted the enactment bureau saffron and claimed it was a BJP office. It was lone aft I informed the section BJP leaders that the amerciable operation was demolished with bulldozers,” Ms. Kundu said.

Several specified instances of white-and-blue Trinamool Congress enactment offices being repainted saffron person been reported from antithetic parts of the State, including Asansol, Kanksa and Falta.

During the 2026 West Bengal Assembly predetermination campaign, BJP leaders, including Suvendu Adhikari and Dilip Ghosh, promised to replicate the governance exemplary introduced successful Uttar Pradesh nether Yogi Adityanath. They cited the usage of bulldozers successful Uttar Pradesh to demolish amerciable structures arsenic an illustration of decisive governance.

Within days of assuming office, bulldozers began rolling done Kolkata. From stalls extracurricular New Market to buildings successful the predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods of Topsia and Tiljala that had allegedly been constructed without sanctioned plans, demolition drives became a near-daily occurrence. Ministers successful the recently elected authorities visited demolition sites and spoke to the media astir the request for specified action.

Soon, the anti-encroachment thrust extended to railway stations, which service arsenic a lifeline for lakhs of commuters. After clearing encroachments astatine Sealdah and Howrah stations, authorities turned their attraction to Dum Dum station. Hundreds of radical selling tea, phuchka and different accelerated nutrient items watched arsenic their tiny establishments were demolished.

Like the removal of statues, the eviction of railway hawkers is often carried retired astatine night. At Dum Dum station, a ample contingent of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the West Bengal constabulary was deployed connected the nighttime of May 30. Hawkers and leaders of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the commercialized national helping of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), resisted the drive. However, they were nary lucifer for the ample information presence.

“We person each voted for them (the BJP) to travel to power. We plead with folded hands not to propulsion america to the ground. We are radical of humble means. How volition our families past without this shop? If we were affluent enough, would we beryllium selling beverage for ₹5 astatine a railway station?” said a beverage stall proprietor astatine Dum Dum station.

In immoderate cases, eviction drives astatine Brace Bridge railway presumption and Hastings person been stayed by the Calcutta High Court. “The latest menace is successful Nimtala, adjacent the railway line, wherever astir 800 radical are affected. The Calcutta High Court is proceeding the matter, but threats of eviction proceed each day,” said Srabanti Sarkari, a State committee subordinate of MuktoKantha Mahila Samity, a corporate of stateless moving women successful Kolkata.

Ms. Sarkari said that successful Hastings, wherever astir 700 radical unrecorded nether a flyover, the constabulary had attempted to evict residents contempt a enactment bid granted by the Calcutta High Court successful September 2025. The bid remained successful unit arsenic of June 2026.

Amid the evictions, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari connected June 6. At a associated property conference, the 2 leaders announced an concern of ₹1 lakh crore to upgrade railway infrastructure successful the State. The funds volition beryllium utilized for the modernisation of 102 Amrit Bharat stations and the operation of 538 flyovers and underpasses. Both BJP leaders said that the Trinamool Congress authorities had not cooperated with the Railways successful implementing projects. The Trinamool government, however, had followed a argumentation of not evicting hawkers and settlers.

A time aft the gathering betwixt the BJP leaders, respective bulldozers arrived connected Jadavpur Station Road and began razing shanties, makeshift shops and hawkers’ stalls connected the nighttime of June 7.

The eviction thrust was met with absorption arsenic CPI(M) leaders Srijan Bhattacharya, Ushasie Chakraborty and Sujan Chakraborty reached the tract and demanded rehabilitation for hawkers earlier the stalls and shanties were demolished. The constabulary resorted to force, baton-charged the protesters and took Mr. Bhattacharya and others into custody.

Mr. Bhattacharya, 33, a salient young CPI(M) leader, said that alternatively of removing poverty, the BJP was trying to region the mediocre from West Bengal. “The mode successful which the BJP is removing hawkers is driven by firm interests and the aesthetics of the wealthy. They bash not privation to spot what they see unaesthetic hawkers’ shops astatine railway stations.... Their thought of modernising a metropolis is to marque the mediocre invisible,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

The CPI(M) person said that erstwhile the Trinamool Congress came to powerfulness aft defeating the Left Front, it had acted likewise by coating buildings achromatic and blue, installing the Biswa Bangla logo crossed the State, renaming roads and Metro stations, and shifting the State Secretariat to Nabanna. “The Trinamool Congress is getting a sensation of its ain medicine,” helium said.

BJP leaders reason that West Bengal cannot advancement arsenic agelong arsenic hawkers inhabit footpaths and areas astir railway lines. “If the footpaths are occupied and the stations are occupied, nationalist beingness comes to a standstill for the involvement of a fewer people. How volition West Bengal determination forward? Those encroaching connected specified spaces request to bespeak connected this,” West Bengal Minister and elder BJP person Dilip Ghosh said.

The developments of the past period person near hawkers and roadside vendors crossed Kolkata and its suburbs anxious. College Street’s roadside publication market, besides known arsenic Boi Para, oregon the neighbourhood of books, is located acold from immoderate railway station. For decades, the marketplace has been celebrated arsenic 1 of Kolkata’s intelligence hubs, not lone due to the fact that it offers second-hand books astatine affordable prices, but besides due to the fact that it is location to thousands of bookstalls that let visitors to browse, observe and acquisition books firsthand.

Book sellers, assemblage students and those who cherish Kolkata’s intelligence civilization fearfulness that the books whitethorn beryllium next.