A year after Jamia violence: Lives upended, campus stays on edge
Following the events of December 15, the university strengthened security, regulating the entry of outsiders more strictly, repairing the damaged Central library and old library, and erasing protest graffiti on the campus.
Mohammad Minhajuddin was studying for a postgraduate degree in law at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi and working with a private company to pay his college fees a year ago. Then something happened on December 15, 2019, that upended his life.
The 27-year-old lost his vision in the left eye when the police stormed the campus of Jamia Millia Islamia on that day after protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, in the nearby New Friends Colony area took a violent turn, leaving at least 200 people injured and damaging several public and private vehicles as well as public property.
The police claim they entered the campus on the heels of a violent mob that took refuge inside it.
“My job at a private firm required me to look at a computer screen for long hours. After the incident, I cannot exert much pressure on my eyes. So I had to come back to Samastipur and work at a district court for less than half what I was earning in Delhi,” Minhajuddin said over the phone from the town in Bihar.
The image of Minhajuddin lying on the floor of a washroom, leaning against the wall, with a handkerchief covering his bleeding eye went viral after the incident .
“I was studying in the library when the police came and I have never been involved in any protest. It makes me angry to see that victims are being treated as offenders. After the incident, I came across social media posts where people said that my other eye too should have been smashed. People don’t look at facts and just want to go with one narrative that suits them,” he said, citing the posts on social media against Jamia students, including him.
Delhi Police spokesperson Eish Singhal said that five cases, including three of rioting, were registered in connection with the violence at Jamia. In the other two cases, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Sharjeel Imam was booked and arrested for sedition and instigating and abetting the Jamia violence through a speech he delivered on December 13. Police have filed charge sheets in all five cases.
“As far as the allegations of police excesses are concerned, many petitions were filed. The matter is subjudice in the Delhi high court,” said Singhal.
A civil services aspirant, Minhajuddin does not want to prepare at the Residential Coaching Academy at Jamia Millia Islamia – one of the top coaching institutes in the city for civil services exams. In August, 30 students from the academy cleared the examination. More than 200 students from Jamia have cleared the exam in the decade since the academy was established, university officials said.
“We can only change the system from within so I want to appear for the Union Public Services Commission examinations. But I don’t want to go back to the university anymore. Mann nahin karta hai (my heart isn’t in it),” Minjahuddin said.
Iron grilles; graffiti removed
On December 12, 2019, the government amended the Citizenship Act, 1955, to fast-track the grant of Indian citizenship to members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from the Muslim-majority nations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The exclusion of Muslims and the linking of citizenship with religion triggered widespread protests across the country, including in Jamia Nagar.
Following the events of December 15, the university strengthened security, regulating the entry of outsiders more strictly, repairing the damaged Central library and old library, and erasing protest graffiti on the campus.
Sadaf Javed, a Ph.D student at the university, said her department’s glass doors, damaged in the violence, have been replaced by iron grilles. “We noticed similar gates outside Begum Hazrat Mahal Girls’ Hostel. The iron grilles only serve as an ugly reminder of how our university was broken in the police action,” she said.
Chief proctor Waseem Ahmad Khan said the university had always been stringent about regulating the entry of outsiders. “We are always trying to improve our security. Due to Covid-19, the university has been shut for over nine months and there is no scope for entry of outsiders currently. Research scholars and postgraduate students of science courses are not allowed without identity cards. Anyone else seeking entry must ask for the permission of the proctorial office,” he said.
During the three-month long protest outside Jamia Millia Islamia, the boundary walls of the campus had been painted with protest graffiti and murals celebrating resistance, unity and brotherhood and depicting several art installations around the theme.
On March 24, the graffiti was whitewashed after Delhi police cleared the protest sites outside Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh soon after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
By then, the university had reopened its Central library after repairing it, but it was shut soon after, owing to the pandemic. The damage caused in the December 15 violence ranged from broken chairs and desks to shattered glass doors, windows, tube lights, and CCTV cameras. Shortly after the violence, university officials said campus property worth around ₹2.66 crore was damaged.
The university sought compensation the University Grants Commission to repair the library, but is yet to receive any, officials privy to the matter said .
Apart from the installation of gates around departments and hostels, the university has also constructed walls in the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, effectively cordoning off the vice-chancellor’s office connected to it.
“Earlier, anyone inside the campus could reach the VC office via MCRC. Now those routes have been shut and those wanting to reach that block will have to do so through the main gate where they have to state the purpose of visit,” a university official said on condition of anonymity,
On December 15, 2019, several students on the campus escaped the violence by jumping over the boundary wall separating MCRC from the Ghaffar Manzil neighbourhood.
A cultural shift?
Srijan Chawla, a postgraduate student of the varsity, said the incidents of the past year have led to “suppression of thought” among students.
“A year-long investigation and public scrutiny have left students very uncomfortable. It creates an environment of suppression and students will be concerned even after they return to campus,” Chawla said. “While this fear will not affect the quality of academic work produced by the University, which has been great even during a turbulent year, it may see changes in the topics students choose to work on. If their basic right to protest is met with such oppression, it might dissuade students from engaging in campus activism, thereby changing the nature of policies in the university which are often influenced by student politics.”
Jamia students maintain that they did not want the anti-CAA protests to turn violent, but the subsequent interlinking of the agitation with the February communal riots in Delhi that left at least 53 people dead and led to the arrest of three of its students has affected the image of the university.
The arrest of M.Phil student Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Delhi riots case received much attention and evoked distasteful comments about her pregnancy on social media, causing the Delhi Commission for Women to take cognizance of the matter.
Efforts are being made to create an atmosphere of fear among students on the campus, said Saif-ul-Islam, a student in Jamia’s law faculty.
“The University administration has tightened security at the main gate in the last one year. External forces are being called even if students organise small demonstrations over some internal matter. For instance, on Thursday, we called a small protest over the University’s decision of conducting proctorial exams in online mode. For a very small gathering of students, Delhi Police personnel were deployed at the campus. Now we can’t even protest at our own University campus,” he said.
He added that students will hold a virtual meeting to condemn the December 15 violence on its first anniversary on Tuesday.
Break in trust
Several woman students of the university, especially those who are vocal about their political opinions, claimed they had been subjected to constant slander since the violence.
Sadaf Javed, a Ph.D student of history, said she had to deactivate her social media accounts following the incident. “At first, my parents asked me to tone down the political posts...on my profile. Later, many of my school friends engaged in abuse and slander in the virtual world. I tried to engage with them, but to no avail. They referred to the pregnancy of Safoora (the arrested student) and said I too should get tested. I have lost so many friends after the incident because they look at the university in a negative light and by extension use unkind words for me,” she said.
A professor at the university, who asked not to be named, said: “There is a sense of fear among students after the arrest of several Jamia students in connection with the Delhi riots. They feel betrayed since the administration also did not extend any support. It will take a lot of time to rebuild that trust .”
A senior official at the university, requesting anonymity, said around 100 students were called in for questioning or were sent notices by Delhi Police during their investigation into the Delhi riots case. Arvinder Ansari, who teaches in the Sociology department, said: “In this one year, students of the university have been the most affected. First, they were exposed to violence, then the vilification, and then the pandemic struck, further isolating them. Their parents are scared and this is also affecting student activism as a whole. I know many students who want to join the farmers’ agitation to lend solidarity to the cause, but do not have the courage to do so.”
This July, the university was ranked No.1 in the ministry of education’s assessment of the performance of all central universities. Vice-chancellor Najma Akhtar said, “Whether the image of the university was affected or not, is a matter of perspective. JMI topped the Ministry of Education’s ranking for central universities this year and was among the top ten universities as per National Institute Ranking Framework. We believe that if we just continue doing our work, studies, and research, it will speak for itself.”
Akhtar also said that if its public image had been affected, the university would not have received around 10% more admission applications this time compared to last year.
Following the December 2019 violence, the vice-chancellor assured the students that “they were not alone” and had registered a first information report against unnamed police personnel for entering the campus without permission and damaging public property. The university did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Delhi Police have registered multiple FIRs on the violence within and outside the university. Locals and prominent faces such as Sharjeel Imam were arrested for the violence. The cases are being heard by different city courts. Separately, the courts are also hearing petition on the “unwarranted police action” of storming the campus. The cases are yet to be decided.
