New Delhi: The boiling anger against the new citizenship law and police crackdown on students of Jamia Millia Islamia fuelled nationwide protests, from Kolkata to Mumbai and Lucknow to Kerala.
Jamia campus had turned into a battlefield on Sunday as police entered the campus and used force, following a violent protest against the law.
As many as 50 detained students of Jamia were released even as the situation in the campus remained tense with scores of hostel students leaving for home. University Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar demanded a high-level inquiry into the police action on Sunday after a protest against the amended Citizenship Act turned violent.
Delhi Police said that the crime branch will investigate the violence in which four DTC buses, 100 private vehicles and 10 police bikes were damaged and asserted that it used "maximum restraint, minimum force" despite being "provoked" by protesters.
Several students of Delhi University boycotted exams and held protest outside the Arts Faculty in North Campus even as a large number of police personnel were deployed by authorities to prevent any flare up.
The police action triggered protests in several leading universities and institutions across India. The first to join the movement against the violence in JMI were students from the Aligarh University University (AMU) where there were clashes with the police late night on Sunday in which at least 60 students were injured.
Kolkata
In Kolkata, the Jadavpur University and Presidency varsity students took out separate rallies. The students carried placards against the amended citizenship law and police crackdown on students in the campus of Jamia Millia and raised slogans against the BJP and Delhi Police, Debraj Debnath, the General Secretary of Arts Faculty Students' Union of JU, said.
Pune:
Over 300 students and citizens staged a protest on the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus on Monday evening to express solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia who faced police action for agitating against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Students from various SPPU-affiliated colleges and members of organisations such as the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Yuvak Kranti Dal took part in the protest.
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra Students Hit Streets
Students in parts of western and central India took to the streets to denounce police action on students of Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) protesting against the amended Citizenship Act which has ignited nationwide demonstrations.
A large numbers of students staged protests in different parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to condemn alleged police crackdown on agitating students of the JMI, a central university.
Students of Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), the University of Mumbai, Aurangabad's Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) staged protests in solidarity with their counterparts at the Jamia Millia Islamia and AMU.
A large group of people gathered outside the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) complex on Monday afternoon to deplore police action on JMI students, an official said. Around 50 of them were detained, he said. Along with activists, including Shamshad Pathan of Alp-Sankhyak Adhikar Manch, several faculty members, students of IIMA, CEPT University and other prominent institutions were also taken into custody for agitating on the footpath outside the prestigious business school.
Noted activist and classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai also took part in the demonstration, but she was not among those who were detained. "We detained 50 protesters for not taking permission to assemble at the place, which is near a road. They were causing a traffic jam," Inspector H M Vyas of the Gujarat University police station said.
Hundreds of students from the TISS and the University of Mumbai held protests to denounce the BJP-led government over the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and also the proposed National Register of Citizen (NRC). They condemned the police action against the students of the JMI and the AMU.
Telangana
Scores of students of different universities in Hyderabad staged a sit-in inside their campuses holding placards protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the police action on their counterparts in Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia. Students of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, University of Hyderabad and Osmania University held demonstrations and raised slogans against the BJP-led government at the Centre and Delhi Police.
Uttar Pradesh
Protests against the amended Citizenship Act hit new areas in Uttar Pradesh on Monday with a mob setting vehicles ablaze in Mau and students hurling stones at policemen outside an Islamic seminary in the state capital.
Students at the Banaras Hindu University again held a protest. In Lucknow, there was a demonstration at a private university as well. Aligarh University campus remained sealed amid patrolling by the police, a day after students clashed with them.
AMU students started vacating their hostel rooms on Monday morning, as ordered by the authorities who had declared an early winter vacation. By the evening, a university official said, about 50 per cent of them had left the campus. Protests erupted in other parts of Aligarh on Monday, with people in some areas demanding the release of those held after the previous day's clashes.
In Mau, protesters vandalised a police station and torched vehicles, prompting police to fire in the air. The police said the mob was dispersed.
The videos of the violence, which have gone viral on social media, show the computer room of Mau's Dakshintola police station vandalised with chairs and some computers damaged. A portion of the boundary wall of the police station was also damaged, and firemen could be seen extinguishing fire, which had erupted in one corner of the police station.
Students at the Islamic seminary Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow's Gudamba area also joined the protest in solidarity with the agitating AMU and Jamia Millia students. As they tried to storm out of the seminary, a police force stopped them. Some of the students then hurled stones at policemen outside the gates. Nobody was reported hurt.
In Varanasi, scores of Banaras Hindu University students staged a protest at the main gate of the campus in support of the AMU and Jamia students. BHU students gathered there holding placards and banners, and shouted slogans. A large number of police personnel were deployed. Scores of BHU students, including those from the Left-backed AISA had also staged a protest at Lanka Gate on Sunday in support of the AMU students.
Punjab
A group of students held a peaceful protest on Panjab University campus in Chandigarh. The Students for Society, a students' body, claimed SFS and some other student outfits took part in the protest on PU campus in the evening.
The students gathered at the 'Students Centre' and took out a protest-march towards the university market. "SFS strongly condemns the brutal assault of Delhi police that they unleashed upon the students protesting the amended Citizenship Act in Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi..." SFS said in a statement.
Karnataka
Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) broke out in Shivamogga, Ballari, Mysuru, Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka on Monday. The protesters staged sit-in demonstrations, took out rallies and raised slogans against the BJP government at the Centre.
In Mysuru, hundreds of people came out on the street, raising slogans demanding the abolition of the CAA and took out a bike rally against the Act was taken out. Holding placards and the Indian flag, the protesters shouted Down, Down BJP, We Want Justice and Abolish CAA.
Following the agitation, the police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC terming any congregation in the city illegal. In Shivamogga, former MLA K B Prasanna Kumar led the protests near Gandhi Park in Shivamogga under the Kote police station limits. Fearing that the protests would turn violent, police took him into their custody.
In Ballari too, a mega rally was taken out on the streets opposing the CAA. In Bengaluru, the IISc students organised a day-long silent protest in front of the statue of Jamsetji Tata in solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi and other parts of India.
Kerala
Activists of the DYFI, the youth wing of the ruling CPI(M), squatted on the railway tracks at Thiruvalla and Kollam and blocked trains. While the protesters blocked the Velankani-Ernakulam express for 13 minutes at the Thiruvalla railway station in Pathnamthitta district, the Island express was blocked at the Kollam station, railway sources told PTI.
The activists, who squatted on the tracks, were later arrested and removed. In Palakkad, the Congress activists led by MLA Shafi Parambil, laid a seige of the Palakkad railway station. Students outfits, including Kerala Students Union (KSU) of the opposition Congress, blocked trains at various places including Kozhikode, Thalassery, Kannur, and Palakkad on Sunday night against the police action.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala began a joint "satyagraha" to protest against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). State ministers, LDF leaders, Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders are among those taking part in the three-hour long protest at the Martyr's column here which began at 10 am.
Kerala was the first state to declare that CAA would not be implemented in the southern state.
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