Police stops artists from drawing graffiti of Akhil Gogoi, police act angers artist community

The artists from Anga Arts Collective, an organization were painting the graffiti on a wall near Laalmati Nidhi Bhawan, outside Guwahati.

According to the artists, they were simply drawing what they felt. While they were painting, a few police personnel from Basistha police station came and prevented them from painting and asked them to rub off whatever was painted.

This has left the artist community upset and angry. They have termed this move as undemocratic. Artists and common people have taken to social media to express their displeasure.

Speaking to The Sentinel an artist said."We had worked on such projects many times. As an artist whatever we saw we paint. And we have been seeing these things constantly on social media sites which is very disturbing for us, so we were simply just drawing whatever we have seen. But suddenly police came and stopped us from painting. They said we can not paint such graffiti about Akhil as he is imprisoned."

The artist said that they feel they no longer have any democratic right to express as Indian citizens.