Delhi po­lice un­der the com­mand and con­trol of the Union gov­ern­ment of In­dia un­leashed ter­ror on stu­dents of the Jamia Milia Uni­ver­sity protest­ing against the Cit­i­zen­ship Amend­ment Bill.

INTRUD­ING INTO THE au­di­to­rium, li­brary and au­di­to­rium of the Jamia Milia Uni­ver­sity, with­out per­mis­sion from the Uni­ver­sity, the Delhi po­lice re­sorted to the bar­baric beat­ing of stu­dents, lobbed tear gas shells and fired in the air, forc­ing the stu­dents to raise their hands in the air. A large num­ber of stu­dents have been de­tained at var­i­ous po­lice sta­tions and many are also con­va­lesc­ing in hos­pi­tals.

Girl stu­dents told me­dia that they were not even part of the protest and were study­ing in the li­brary and were badly beaten up by the po­lice.

Hun­dreds of stu­dents are cry­ing in var­i­ous po­lice sta­tions, with­out food, with­out med­ical treat­ment, no first aid.  The anger of pro­tes­tors and par­ents is grow­ing but noth­ing seems to be mov­ing.

Re­spond­ing to the ap­peal of Jamia Milia stu­dents, at this mid­night hour to­day, hun­dreds of stu­dents of Jamia Milia Uni­ver­sity are now joined by Delhi Uni­ver­sity and Jawa­har­lal Nehru Uni­ver­sity stu­dents who are de­mand­ing the ar­rest of the guilty po­lice of­fi­cers, who were mer­ci­lessly beaten up by the po­lice. Civil lib­er­ties ac­tivists and lead­ers of po­lit­i­cal ac­tivists are reach­ing Delhi Po­lice Head­quar­ters where the protest is on. Brinda Karat of CPI Marx­ist, upon reach­ing the protest has said, “Are you win­ning a war? It is ut­terly shame­ful.”

Jamia Milia Uni­ver­sity stu­dents were protest­ing the pro­vi­sions of the Cit­i­zen­ship Amend­ment Bill. Delhi po­lice claimed that the stu­dents were re­spon­si­ble for stone-pelt­ing at the po­lice and set­ting afire buses and pub­lic prop­erty.

Im­ages and video ev­i­dence on var­i­ous In­dian satel­lite tele­vi­sion chan­nels point out to the law­less and bar­baric man­ner in which the po­lice was beat­ing the stu­dents and also them­selves de­stroy­ing pub­lic prop­erty.

Jamia Milia Uni­ver­sity Vice-chan­cel­lor has cat­e­gor­i­cally stated that the po­lice force­fully en­tered the Uni­ver­sity cam­pus.

BBC re­porter Bashra Sheikh, whose phone was snatched by the po­lice was also as­saulted by the Delhi po­lice. When she asked the po­lice to re­turn her phone, she was abused by them.

The whole coun­try from the North to the North­east is protest­ing the new de­f­i­n­i­tions of cit­i­zen­ship which are forc­ing the mi­nor­ity com­mu­ni­ties to protest against the bill. Fur­ther­more, the Supreme Court of In­dia is likely to soon hear a clutch of pe­ti­tions chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ity of the Cit­i­zen­ship Amend­ment Bill.

A large num­ber of Mus­lim res­i­dents of Delhi -men and women are con­verg­ing at the protest and are de­mand­ing jus­tice for stu­dents.

The sit­u­a­tion of In­dia re­minds of what writer Charles Dick­ens wrote in the back­drop of rev­o­lu­tion­ary up­heaval in Eu­ropes. He said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wis­dom, it was the age of fool­ish­ness, it was the epoch of be­lief, it was the epoch of in­credulity, it was the sea­son of Light, it was the sea­son of dark­ness, it was the spring of hope, it was the win­ter of de­spair…”

It is fur­ther shock­ing to note that many par­ents are run­ning from pil­lar to post look­ing for their wards, not know­ing whether they are im­pris­oned or whether they are hos­pi­talised af­ter be­ing at­tacked by the po­lice.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wis­dom, it was the age of fool­ish­ness, it was the epoch of be­lief, it was the epoch of in­credulity, it was the sea­son of Light, it was the sea­son of dark­ness, it was the spring of hope, it was the win­ter of de­spair…”

Charles Dick­ens -in the back­drop of rev­o­lu­tion­ary up­heaval in Eu­rope

Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh has strongly de­nounced the po­lice bar­bar­ity on protest­ing stu­dents. He asked, “Who gave or­ders to the po­lice to at­tack the stu­dents in Jamia Milia?”

Naam Tami­lar Katchi leader See­man has said, “This is un­ac­cept­able. Po­lice bru­tal­ity in the cap­i­tal of the coun­try is shock­ing and shame­ful. The at­tack on stu­dents within Jamia is the cul­mi­na­tion of state ter­ror­ism.  I strongly con­demn the fas­cist BJP gov­ern­ment! Let fas­cism fall! Let the peo­ple’s rev­o­lu­tion erupt! We un­equiv­o­cally stand with the stu­dents!”

The Con­gress party leader Alka Lamba has ex­pressed shock at the role of the po­lice and has ques­tioned the si­lence of the gov­ern­ment of In­dia.

A stu­pid Pres­i­dent of Delhi Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa has said that the po­lit­i­cal protest of the stu­dents has the back­ing of Aam Aadmi Party.

The Delhi gov­ern­ment has or­dered the clo­sure of schools in the af­fected area and there is a big ques­tion mark about nor­mal life in Delhi to­mor­row morn­ing.

An ac­tivist fears that at some point in the mid­dle of the night, there is a big like­li­hood of po­lice per­pe­trat­ing more bru­tal­ity on the pro­tes­tors out­side the Delhi Po­lice Head­quar­ters.