Anger over the police crackdown in Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia and at the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act rippled across many campuses in the country on Monday. Politicians and civil society also joined in supporting the students to decry the new law, which they say is 'unconstitutional'.
The morning after violence erupted in the national capital's New Friends Colony, the lines between anger at the police action and the protests over the CAA blurred into a unison of protest -- from Kerala to West Bengal and Telangana to Uttar Pradesh -- as the day progressed.
While thousands of students took to the streets demanding a probe into the use of teargas inside the Jamia university's library on Sunday as well as police entering the campus without permission from university authorities, politicians also made themselves heard.
Bengal CM, Politicians Protest
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took out a massive rally in Kolkata and said the CAA could only be imposed in the state over her "dead body".
Opposition leaders addressed a joint press conference in Delhi and said the entire country is opposed to the "unconstitutional law" while condemning the violence against the Jamia students.
"An attack on students is an attack on the soul of India," Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, after holding a silent protest with Congress leaders from 4-6pm at India Gate.
Political rivals UDF and LDF, in a rare show of camaraderie, protested jointly in the Kerala capital.
Life was thrown out of gear in several places, including West Bengal. Highways and railway lines were blocked and incidents of arson and loot reported from many places in the state. Trains between West Bengal and the Northeast came to a halt with the railways suspending all services to the northern region of the state, officials said.
Police used tear gas shells and fired in the air to control the situation after
protestors in Uttar Pradesh's Mau set ablaze 15 vehicles, including those of the cops.
Government, Supreme Court Speak Against violence
As demonstrations over the act that will give citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh snowballed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said violent protests on the legislation are "unfortunate and deeply distressing". He said on Twitter that "groups with vested interest" could not be allowed "to divide us and create disturbance".
Stepping in to quell the unrest, the Union Home Ministry asked states and Union Territories (UTs) to take all possible steps to check violence, fake news and ensure safety of life and properties.
The Supreme Court, which agreed to hear on Tuesday pleas alleging police atrocities on students holding protests against the act at the Aligarh Muslim University and the Jamia Millia Islamia, said it will not hear this issue amid such an atmosphere of violence.
Student Protests Across India
In the national capital, several Delhi University students boycotted exams and held a protest outside the Arts Faculty in North Campus to express their solidarity with the movement.
At ground zero of the student movement, a group of Jamia students stood shirtless in the bone-chilling cold of a December Delhi morning to protest the action against their colleagues on Sunday. Hundreds more gathered on the streets in an orderly manner with some students forming a human chain to manage traffic.
Jamia Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar also supported the students, saying police entered the campus without permission. She also demanded a high-level inquiry into the Sunday incident.
There were angry demonstrations at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, Hyderabad's Maulana Azad Urdu University, Jadavpur University in Kolkata and Lucknow's Nadwa College. Many demanded that the government take action against police "hooliganism".
Students also joined the nationwide protest from Mumbai University, Tata Insitute of Social Sciences (TISS), Central University of Kerala, Kasargod and Pondicherry University, Patiala's Punjab University, Patna University and Chennai's Loyola College.
Students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Kanpur, Kharagpur Madras and Bombay who usually stay away from agitations joined in too as did their counterparts from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.
The first to join the movement against the violence in Jamia were students from AMU where there were clashes with the police late night on Sunday in which at least 60 students were injured. The administration announced closure of the university till January 5 and students were asked to evacuate the hostels.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students joined their compatriots in Jamia outside the police headquarters at Delhi's ITO on Sunday night to protest the alleged police assault on students at the Jamia campus earlier in the day.
(With inputs from PTI)
