SP students’ wing stages protest in LU, uneasy calm in Nadwa

LUCKNOW: The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) spread to Lucknow University on Tuesday afternoon, a day after a group of students resorted to violence

LUCKNOW: The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) spread to Lucknow University on Tuesday afternoon, a day after a group of students resorted to violence at Nadwa College, where an uneasy calm prevailed.

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Many minority degree colleges in the state capital, like Shia PG and others turned into fortresses as the district administration deployed heavy police force in apprehension that students in these institutions may join the protest.

The Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha office-bearers staged a protest at the main gate of the university on Tuesday morning. Some of the protesters even took off their shirts, shouting at the police: Aap lathi lekar aao, hum peeth lekar aaye hai (You bring baton, we will come without our shirt).

The protesters said the BJP was going berserk with its Hindutva agenda and it was time students across all campuses registered protest.

“It was a show of unity against the police crackdown in Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and UP’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is against the spirit of the Indian Constitution and not in sync with the secular image of our country,” said Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha national vice president Pooja Shukla.

“The streets of India will turn red the way the BJP is attacking the student fraternity, be it at Jamia Milia Islamia or AMU,” she said.

Shukla along with other office-bearers of SP Chhatra Sabha, including state president Digviay Singh Dev and state pesident of Mulayam Singh Yadav Youth Brigade Mohd Ebad reached LU and staged protest outside gate number 1.

The activists raised slogans against the BJP government and demanded roll back of CAA because they believed it targeted the Muslim community.

To note, Pooja Shukla was among those who had waved black flags at chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s convoy on University Road in June 2017.

The protest lasted for about 25 minutes after which police forcibly bundled the activists in its vehicles and took them to the Lucknow Police Lines where they were released around 2 pm, said Digviay Singh Dev.

Ebad said police had reached campus ahead of them and did not let them continue their protest for long.

Incidentally when the SP students’ wing was staging protest, a group of Lucknow University students took out a march on the campus drumming up support in favour of CAA. These students were allowed to take a round of the campus even though the examination was on.

When contacted, Lucknow University vice chancellor SK Shukla said the university had not given permission to anyone to take out a march on the campus.

“It was a group of students and they were asked to leave the campus by the proctorial team. There is no room for protest on the campus,” he said.

The thread of solidarity ran from Nadwa to the Bahasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar (Central) University to Integral University of Lucknow that has been closed down till January 18.

Chancellor of Integral University SW Akhtar said as the campus was closed on December 16, students had left for their homes and there was no development.

Forces were deployed at Shia PG College and other minority degree colleges in the state capital as a precautionary measure as the district administration feared that protests against the CAA may catch up with Muslim students in these institutions too. But there were no protests.