New Delhi, July 28: Goons had forced artists painting Urdu poetry on a public wall to deface their work two months ago.

Today, with Delhi minister Kapil Mishra watching, the wall was repainted with the same couplet, which salutes Delhi's ability to rebound from ruin.

"Painting this wall, for me, is a symbol of breaking down the artificial walls created around languages," Mishra told The Telegraph.

"Our city belongs to everyone. We will not let anyone create divisions based on languages because Delhi represents India, which is multilingual and multi-religious."

Under a Delhi government project, #MyDilliStory, 40 walls around the city are to be painted with 40 couplets in the capital's four official languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. More than 20 have been completed.

On May 20, French artist Swen Simon and a Delhi-based fonts expert, Akhlaq Ahmad, were painting an Urdu couplet composed by a student, Zeeshan Amjad, on the wall of a Delhi Jal Board office in Shahdara.

" Dilli tera ujarna, aur phir ujar ke basna/ Woh dil hai toone paya, sani nahi hai jiska," it went. A translation: Delhi, you were ruined and bounced back; no city has a heart like yours.

A mob surrounded the duo, objecting to them painting in Urdu. Amid chants of "Jai Shri Ram", the artists were forced to paint "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" and "Narendra Modi" over the Urdu letters.

A man named Raju who allegedly claimed to be from the local Sangh branch led the mob.

Today, Ahmad returned with artists Kush Sethi and Simran Gill --- members of an artists' collective, Delhi I Love You, which is steering the project --- to finish the job.

On July 21, they had painted another part of the same wall with a Hindi couplet by Ashish Jayra that says: " Har naye chehre ko apnati hai Dilli/ Loktantra ka asli matlab sikhati hai Dilli (Delhi accepts every new face, it teaches us the real meaning of democracy)."

"Today, the same man, Raju, came and asked what we were doing. We said we had permission and didn't need to explain," Gill told this newspaper.

"He said he didn't have anything against Urdu but was against any Pakistani (Simon) telling an Indian what to do. I told him that Simon was French and that he (Raju) had no right to order anyone around."

She added: "We have been welcomed warmly in other parts of Delhi. It's only here that we hear snide remarks when we paint."

Pushcart vendors on the street this newspaper spoke to said they had been present during the May 20 confrontation but didn't want to talk about it.

"I've been here for 16 years. I live here; you don't. Their painting is good but they will paint and go away," a juice vendor said.

Ahmad said: "A Muslim man came and said he read Urdu and liked the couplet but we should also write it in Hindi. There's too much trouble here, he said."

A Hindi translation of the couplet has been painted below the Urdu lettering.

Schoolchildren flocked round the artists. Motorcyclists stopped to watch them work in the narrow lane beside the wall, causing traffic snarls. Many asked to be told the meaning of the couplet.

After minister Mishra arrived, a dance flash mob called Nerve Energizers danced at the narrow intersection on the Grand Trunk Road nearby.

Three tall turbaned men appeared and told this reporter: "We local residents like this painting. We won't tolerate any communal tension."