New Delhi: Protests against the triple threats of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the proposed National Register of Citizens and the impending National Population Register have continued on a range of magnitude throughout the country.
From candlelight vigils at the gates of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi to protests by Muslim women not just at the capital’s Shaheen Bagh but also at Patna’s Sabzibagh and Kolkata’s Park Circus, what is primarily a youth and women-led women has not shown signs of letting up.
Meanwhile, a spate of FIRs and police action bordering on severe brutality keeps the protests that have taken place in the last month active in collective memories.
From condemnation to intricacies in bail orders, in this page, The Wire brings you the updates from the anti-CAA and NRC protests.
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Those wanting to protest against the CAA in Ahmedabad on Monday approached the Gujarat high court saying that the police did not grant them permission to protest peacefully. According to the Times of India, Justice A.Y. Kogje said that the police should take a decision on the application in time.
The petitioners, Mudita Vidrohi and Mujahid Nafees, said that while the administration has granted permission to 62 programmes held by the BJP to support the CAA, it has been denying permission to those wanting to protest it. Denial of permission to protest peacefully is in violation of people’s fundamental rights.
The petitioners said they had applied for permission on January 5 to stage a protest on January 19 in Jamalpur area. They said the police have not granted or denied permission and sought the high court’s intervention.
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ISI students, teachers sign statement in support of JNU
Several hundred students, teachers and research of the Indian Statistical Institutes across India have issued a statement in condemnation of the violence that took place, as rightwing members attacked JNU students and teachers on January 5. The incident, though fuelled by students’ resistance to the hostel fee hike in particular, has now been subsumed in the anti-CAA protests seeing that several other institutions have been on the receiving end of violent action.
The ISI professors’ statement of solidarity makes mention of “incidents in Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University”.
It adds, “We see this as part of systematic attacks in Indian educational institutes which is a disgrace to our nation and a threat to the seats of intellect.”
This comes amidst a clear knowledge of the aftereffects of signing solidarity statements against forces opposed to the government, as was examined in this story.
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Punjab to defer to ‘will of state assembly’
The Punjab government will go by the will of the state assembly on the CAA, NRC, and NPR, an official statement accessed by PTI said.
This was decided on Tuesday evening by Punjab ministers during an informal discussion after a Cabinet meeting, the statement read. “The ministers also expressed concern over the implications of the blatantly unconstitutional and divisive CAA, NRC and NPR,” the statement said.
They also expressed alarm over the violence that had erupted across the country over the issues, which, according to them, “threatened to rip apart the secular fabric of the nation”.
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Jamia VC meets Delhi police commissioner over campus violence
Jamia Millia Islamia Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar on Tuesday met Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and urged him to lodge an FIR in connection with the police action on campus after an anti-CAA protest in the neighbourhood, PTI reported.
Besides Patnaik, Akhtar met Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) Praveer Ranjan and Joint Commissioner of Police, Southern Range, Devesh Srivastava.
On Monday, the vice chancellor had said the varsity administration will “explore the possibility” of moving court for registration of an FIR against “police brutality” on the campus after hundreds of angry students gheraoed her office demanding action against the Delhi Police.
On December 15, violence erupted during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in south Delhi’s New Friends’ Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia. Protesters torched vehicles and clashed with police.