Several student organisations on behalf of all students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) organised a press conference today, March 12 at 3 pm and put forth their demands. This was following the protests that had erupted at Jamia after the central government issued a notice for implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) yesterday, Monday, March 11.
Terming the act as “patently unjust, discriminatory and divisive”, the statement issued by the students read, “What's more concerning is that the Bill got implemented one day before SBI is supposed to give a detailed account of the Electoral Bonds. The implementation of the bill at this time is a clear tactic being used by the Modi Government for polarization and to gather more votes in the name of Hindutva before the upcoming 2024 General Elections.”
Speaking to EdexLive, Anjali, a JMI-AISA activist said, “When the youth of the country are demanding employment, farmers of the country are demanding MSP (Minimum Support Price), and the students of the country are saying that they want quality education, and that attempts to destroy our education system through the facade of National Education Policy (NEP) must be stopped. Instead of all these, the notification for CAA is out, the government thinks that CAA is what India needs the most."
The other associations that participated in the press conference are:
AIRSO — All India Revolutionary Students Organisation
AISA — All India Students’ Association
CRJD — Student organisation of RJD (Rashtriya Janta Dal)
DISSC — Dayar-I-Shauq Students' Charter/ Democratic Progressive Students Organisation
Fraternity Movement
MSF — Muslim Students Federation
SFI — Students' Federation of India and
SIO — Students Islamic Organisation of India
CAA for votes?
Further, claiming that the government wants to polarise votes, Anjali said, “Jamia’s students have organised a press conference and made it clear that we won’t let CAA be implemented and we will keep questioning the government about employment, MSP, education, electoral bonds, and more, vehemently."
Condemning the act, Anjali criticised it opining that “CAA, as a piece of legislation is divisive in itself because it gives citizenship on the basis of religion. The Constitution of India is a secular one, and this is a cause of pride for every Indian.”
“We reject the CAA, demanding that you (the government) not give anyone citizenship based on religion," she stressed. According to the statement issued by the students, their demands are:
1) Repeal CAA
2) Release all students booked in the anti-CAA movement and withdraw all the cases charged against the students and the people.
3) Demilitarise the campus
The 2019 protests
Recalling the 2019-2020 protests against CAA for which Jamia was the epicentre, students highlighted that CAA is not a new question for them. “We have the experience of organising a people's upsurge against the CAA, NRC (National Register of Citizens) and NPR (National Population Register), which lasted for more than three months from December 2019 to March 2020. The movement faced massive repression from the fascist state and its instruments of oppression, like the police, bureaucracy, RSS outfits and so on,” the statement read.
It further stressed that many activists such as Meeran Haider, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Shifa ur Rehman, Gulfisha Fatima, and others who led the movement were charged with UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) and were put in prison.
“Ultimately, in the name of COVID-19 pandemic, the government got the opportunity to suppress our movement. Many are still in jail. And now, through intense militarisation, Jamia has become an open jail, where protesting itself has become a crime,” it added.
Earlier, speaking to PTI, Jamia Acting Vice-Chancellor Eqbal Hussain said, "We have tightened security arrangements to avoid any kind of agitation on the campus. No protest against the CAA will be allowed by students or outsiders near the campus."
