Almost 25,000 students from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) are on protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The conspicuous absence of Muslims in the list of nationalities eligible for citizenship in the amended bill has led to widespread unrest across the country. Today, Farook College, which is known as the AMU of the South took to the streets from their classrooms in solidarity with the students of AMU and others.
The march was organised under the leadership of the institution's five major parties: SFI, KSU, Fraternity Movement, Campus Front of India and Muslim Students Federation. Classes were dismissed after the first period, after which almost 2000 students began their walk at 10 AM from the campus and walked 3 km to reach Chungam Junction. After burning an effigy of Home Minister Amit Shah, the leader of each party spoke about the bill and the need to resist it. They wound up the event by marching back to the campus where they were greeted by teachers' organisations that addressed them in detail about why it was time for students and teachers needed to reach across party lines against the 'ruling party's agenda'.
"It was sometime around midnight that we got the permission to organise this," says Mohammed Vaseem, President of KSU in the college. "After securing the backing from the Students' Union, we began planning it around 1 am. Farook College is always the first educational institution to begin responding to issues like this in Kerala. And this was one issue where we could not stay quiet about it. The last six months of this government has been just pure fear. We protested through Kashmir and we are protesting through this. And we will keep doing it until our voices are heard."
Nuha Fathima is a 3rd-year student of BA Malayalam and was one of the leading participants of the march. If you ask her what got her blood boiling, Nuha doesn't hold back. "I have been watching," she says, her voice still hoarse and quivering from the morning's slogans. "I watched voices being silenced in Kashmir and I saw the seed of this beast being planted in Assam. At the time, I could do nothing but be shocked. Just as I was when the Rajya Sabha passed this bill. I'm not shocked anymore. That bill now rests on the desk of the President and then it will be at the mercy of the Supreme Court. I will not be shocked if they also let it pass. But we will all be here, ready to make our voices heard."
