Notwith­stand­ing the fact that the Delhi Po­lice has not reg­is­tered an FIR against the po­lice per­son­nel for their bru­tal­ity against the stu­dents from the pe­riph­ery of the Uni­ver­sity to the in­side of the li­brary, the Jamia Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee has de­cided to shift the protest site from Gate no. 7 to Gate no. 4 in view of the Delhi elec­tions, for two days -7-8 Feb­ru­ary 2020 in def­er­ence to an ap­peal made by the Delhi po­lice through the Uni­ver­sity ad­min­is­tra­tion. Some stu­dents, un­der protest of the non-reg­is­tra­tion of the FIR are boy­cotting ex­ams. Stu­dents par­tic­i­pate in their classes and take turns to be part of the on­go­ing protest re­lent­lessly.

JAMIA CO­OR­DI­NA­TION COM­MIT­TEE OF THE PROTEST­ING STU­DENTS, who are on the streets de­mand­ing the pun­ish­ment of the guilty po­lice per­son­nel who mer­ci­lessly at­tacked them on 15 De­cem­ber have de­cided to shift the protest site from Gate No. 7 to Gate No. 4 in re­sponse to the re­quest made by the Reg­is­trar of the Uni­ver­sity who in turn had re­ceived a re­quest from the Delhi Po­lice.

In a press note is­sued to the me­dia, the JCC has said, “We make it abun­dantly clear that up­hold­ing the de­mo­c­ra­tic ideals of the coun­try is at the fore­front of our move­ment against CAA. We recog­nise and re­it­er­ate that the elec­toral process is an es­sen­tial el­e­ment of the de­mo­c­ra­tic func­tion­ing of the State and we shall co­op­er­ate fully in the free and fair con­duct of the elec­tions. Re­spect­ing the model code of con­duct which pro­hibits can­vass­ing by po­lit­i­cal par­ties within 100mtrs of a polling sta­tion, we have de­cided to move our protest to Gate no. 4 of the uni­ver­sity. “

Though the po­lice had sought the re­moval of the pro­tes­tors from the road with the ex­cuse of the elec­tions, the JCC has shifted the protest to Gate No. 4, which is in no way a hin­drance to the elec­toral process.

The press note read, “This is be­ing done to en­sure that vot­ers do not face any prob­lems in en­ter­ing and ex­it­ing the polling sta­tion. We will also en­sure that the traf­fic is not ham­pered be­cause of the protest so that vot­ers do not face any dif­fi­culty in reach­ing the polling sta­tion. We ex­pect the ad­min­is­tra­tion and po­lice au­thor­i­ties to also co­op­er­ate with us and en­sure that no ‘un­to­ward’ in­ci­dent takes place with the peace­ful pro­tes­tors.”

“Our fight is for the pro­tec­tion of the con­sti­tu­tional ideals of the coun­try and to pro­tect our free­dom of speech and ex­pres­sion in­clud­ing our right to dis­sent. We con­demn the un­apolo­getic man­ner in which the uni­ver­sity ad­min­is­tra­tion has used the elec­tion as bait to ex­er­cise pres­sure on the stu­dents to end the protest against the CAA, NRC and the NPR.”

The Jamia Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee has chas­tised the Jamia Uni­ver­sity ad­min­is­tra­tion telling them that, “The ad­min­is­tra­tion dusts away re­spon­si­bil­ity by say­ing that they are not re­spon­si­ble for the safety of pro­tes­tors on the road while they could not en­sure the se­cu­rity of uni­ver­sity stu­dents even in­side the uni­ver­sity li­brary on the 15th of De­cem­ber. This fail­ure has still not been ac­cepted by the ad­min­is­tra­tion. It must be noted that this at­tempt by the ad­min­is­tra­tion to cre­ate a bi­nary be­tween the pro­tes­tors of the lo­cal­ity and the pro­tes­tors of the uni­ver­sity is an ex­tremely vain at­tempt to raise ques­tions on the char­ac­ter of the dis­senters and shall not be tol­er­ated.

“The fas­cist state and its ma­chin­ery, which in­cludes a mute po­lice force, must be re­sisted and that re­sis­tance must be on the roads of this coun­try. It is shock­ing that the po­lice openly claims that it can­not en­sure the safety and se­cu­rity of its cit­i­zens! This is a clear in­di­ca­tion of the coun­try be­ing in ut­ter chaos and law­less­ness. And all the more rea­son to be out on the roads.”

Con­demn­ing the Uni­ver­sity role in di­vid­ing the stu­dents into cat­e­gories of pro­tes­tors and non-pro­tes­tors, the JCC noted that, “A few days back the ad­min­is­tra­tion had is­sued a no­tice in the boys’ hos­tels ad­vis­ing stu­dents to dis­tin­guish them­selves from the ‘ag­i­tat­ing stu­dents’ as such stu­dents are dis­rupt­ing the func­tion­ing of the uni­ver­sity. By ma­lign­ing the im­age of the pro­tes­tors, the ad­min­is­tra­tion uses shame­ful pres­sure tac­tics to dis­band the protest.”

It is iron­i­cal that “the po­lice force which stood as shame­ful spec­ta­tors to the Hin­dutva ter­ror­ist at­tack on the march called on 30th of Jan­u­ary 2020 by JCC, is now con­cerned about any ‘un­to­ward’ in­ci­dent at the protest site. A stu­dent was shot in broad day­light in full spec­ta­cle of the po­lice force that was brought to stop the stu­dents from march­ing peace­fully to Ra­jghat. If the po­lice have no in­ten­tion of en­sur­ing our se­cu­rity and on the con­trary acts as a mute spec­ta­tor to ter­ror­ist at­tacks on the stu­dents, then are we as cit­i­zens safe in any cor­ner of the coun­try ?”

Mak­ing their in­ten­tion clear to restart the protest again Gate no. 7 from 9 Feb­ru­ary on­wards, the Jamia Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee said, “The fas­cist state and its ma­chin­ery, which in­cludes a mute po­lice force, must be re­sisted and that re­sis­tance must be on the roads of this coun­try. It is shock­ing that the po­lice openly claims that it can­not en­sure the safety and se­cu­rity of its cit­i­zens! This is a clear in­di­ca­tion of the coun­try be­ing in ut­ter chaos and law­less­ness. And all the more rea­son to be out on the roads.”

Re­sis­tance shall go on.