PROTESTS, POLICE, PUNISHMENT

Students have been at the forefront of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. They have also been at the receiving end of the state’s efforts to push back.

- Atul Krishna

It has been a harrowing two months for India’s university students. In December, thousands of students from dozens of university campuses rose up in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, or CAA, and especially against the police action on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

But once the states – and in places, university administrations – recovered from the surprise of engineering and management students marching, the crackdown on students followed quickly.

Since December, at least 1,500 students have had police cases filed against them. Thousands have been detained. If not at the hands of the police, students have faced inquiries and gag orders – imposed with varying degrees of seriousness – from their own institutions.

Jamia and AMU

Police action against protesters began on the same Sunday evening, December 15, at Jamia in Delhi and AMU, Aligarh. Jamia students had organised a march to the Parliament against the CAA which made religion a factor in the granting of citizenship and left out Muslims. Outsiders joined in, got violent and three buses were torched. The Delhi Police proceeded to baton-charge and tear-gas students and tear into a library. One student lost his eye.

The university filed a complaint, a student injured that evening has sued for damages. CCTV clips of the violence in the library have been dribbling out online since February 16 stoking further controversy. However, Delhi Police filed cases against seven for culpable homicide (not amounting to murder), including three Jamia students. They later arrested 10 – no student among them.

The same evening Jamia students were left bloodied, the Uttar Pradesh Police baton-charged students in AMU. One lost a hand.

Protests and the police