I am a student from Mumbai. And I stand with Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI).
The reason behind the protests by students from various universities was against the CAB (now CAA) that is, the Citizenship Amendment Bill, now, Act, which discriminates against Muslim minorities in India.
First, the NRC and now the CAA. The government is trying to saffronise everything, which is against the Indian Constitution. According to Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, “any form of discrimination on the basis of caste, class, religion, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, gender are punishable offences.”
The situation in Assam is becoming worse day by day, due to an internet blockage. Mainstream media, however, states the situation as ‘under control.’ I have friends whose families are stuck and are unable to contact them. Due to the NRC, several families have got divided and separated, half of the members are in detention camps, as they failed to provide the required documents. The CAA was passed in both the houses with immense opposition but the general population ignores the opposition and fails to acknowledge on what grounds the bill violates the basic constitutional rights!
The students protesting in universities such as JMI and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have been subjected to selective violence due to its religious disparity in comparison to other central universities. The majority fails to accept the fact that a particular community is being targeted in all aspects. None the less there would be a day when people of a certain caste and religion would be saved whereas the remaining would be subjected to the detention camps due to lack of documentation.
India is a democratic country, and students protesting peacefully don’t violate any rights or laws. There is no such law that as a citizen of the country, you have to support your government or follow the same ideology as they do. What happened to the students in Jamia and other universities is an act of intolerance!
Let’s join our hands and protest against the injustice and show the authorities that we will stand in unity and won’t give up until justice is served rightfully.