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CAA protests: Students step out in solidarity with Jamia
A day after students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi were detained during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), students from the city
A day after students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi were detained during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), students from the city took to the streets to express solidarity with the protestors.
On Monday morning, students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) boycotted classes and field work and staged a protest inside the Deonar campus. “In the light of relentless police brutality in the past week in universities of North-east, Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), we will not enter classrooms and behave as if nothing is wrong with the system. We need nation-wide support to speak up against such brutality,” said one of the students. TISS students also marched from their college campus to the Ambedkar Garden in Chembur.
Students who are part of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) held a march on campus late on Sunday night, hours after the violent clashes in Delhi and Aligarh. Students held placards and flaming torches while chanting slogans in solidarity with students of Jamia Millia. “Officials from Jamia Millia University confirmed that the police entered their campus without prior permission and detained students when they were only holding a peaceful protest. Students were paraded and some also injured, which shows the apathy of the authority towards our lives,” said an IIT-B student, adding, “We will continue raising our voice against any form of oppression.”
In the evening, a large group of students gathered outside the main gate of Kalina campus of the University of Mumbai (MU). The protest was organised by Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, a city-based collective of organisations, who demanded an independent judicial probe into the police brutality in the North-east and Delhi college campuses. “CAA and the National Register of Citizens defy secularism and have been introduced to break the country as we know it. We condemn the acts of police against students of Jamia Millia and AMU,” said Sachin Bansode, from Chatra Bharti. On December 19, students from TISS, IIT-B and colleges affiliated to MU will gather in Girgaum Chowpatty as part of a nation-wide protest.
Six students, who were part of a similar protest at Shivaji Chowk, Kalyan, were detained by Mahatma Phule police on Monday. Around 30 students from Vidyarthi Bharti Sanghatana were at the agitation, when the police asked them to stop. “They did not have permission for the protest,” said an officer.
(With inputs from Sajana Nambiar)
