Braving freezing cold on Saturday morning, a large crowd gathered at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) for the sixth consecutive day to condemn alleged police brutality against students of the university, and continue their protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
On December 15, Delhi Police personnel had entered the university campus to look for ‘outsiders’ who were allegedly involved in violence and arson during a nearby protest against the Act.
Amid heavy sloganeering, protesters ensured that traffic movement in the area remained unaffected and urged the crowd to keep moving in order to avoid blocking the road at any point.
They also took up initiatives to clean up the site of protest and roads along the massive Jamia campus.
‘Will voice our dissent’
Twenty-two-year-old Rahat Parveen, who was on campus on December 15, said: “I have been to several protests in the last few days and we have gathered here at Jamia everyday to stand by the students of this college and voice our dissent against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the NRC.” She also said that police action on students and the general public was “unlawful”
Calling the CAA “discriminatory”, and the actions of the government “arbitrary”, 18-year-old Samia Zahoor, a first-year student of JMI, said: “We know that this attack on secularity of the Constitution is a ploy to distract the masses from real issues such as poverty and unemployment, and direct their attention towards communalism.”
JMI students as well as those from universities across Delhi, local residents and JMI alumni participated in the protest.
Several former JMI students expressed their disappointment over the way the university was being targeted by the authorities.
Nineteen-year-old Shalini Singh, a Delhi University student who narrowly escaped detention during protest on Friday, said: “The police detained protesters at U.P. Bhawan, so I headed to Jamia to extend my solidarity against this oppressive government. I have been to every single protest so far and will continue to do so.”
