In BJP-ruled Assam, a student leader and four artists were picked up for painting graffiti which featured a peasants’ organization leader who has been in jail for almost a year for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

After four hours, police released the five but made them remove the public art by whitewashing the guard wall along National Highway 37 in Guwahati.

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and its students’ front, the Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti (SMSS), which espouse the cause of Assam are against the CAA. They said that the police’s action did not bode well for democracy.

Assistant general secretary of the SMSS, Pranjal Kalita who was picked up along with the four artists, said that the group had been told by the police that they could not draw anything on government property, especially images of arrested people.

The mural painted by the five had depicted Akhil Gogoi, the chief adviser of the KMSS, with his right hand raised in protest while being arrested by policemen.

Gogoi was arrested on December 12, last year at the peak of the anti-CAA agitation in Assam and he is still in jail.

The highly controversial CAA, which eases the rules for acquiring citizenship for non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan is seen by many in Assam as a threat to their identity and culture. Five people had lost their lives in the state during the unrest.

Pranjal Kalita and four other students from the SMSS had painted that mural to point out their support for Akhil, who is known among the student circles as Akhilda.