As the world is reeling from a global pandemic, as India is faced with the many socio-economic ramifications of the resultant lockdown, a different fear and anxiety grips the hearts of many students of Jamia Millia Islamia. Faced with a vengeful Government and its machinery of Police, the students who have lead and actively participated in the anti CAA, NRC and NPR protests are spending sleepless nights. Our crime – expressing our dissent against the discriminatory and unconstitutional measures of the Government that attempted to shake India’s secular, spiritual and democratic foundations.
Two student leaders of the movement, namely Mr Meeran Haider and Mrs Safoora Zargar, have been falsely framed with charges and put behind the bars during the lockdown, a clear violation of the Government regulations for the lockdown. That Safoora Zargar is three months pregnant makes her family and friends excessively concerned for her health and wellbeing in the jail. Members of AAJMI, the alumni association of the university, are also facing the wrath of the Police. Mr Areeb Hasan Khan , Mr Badar Alam and Mr Danish are being increasingly harassed by the Police in the name of investigation – the Police picks them up in the afternoon and leaves them at 2 in the midnight. Many other students are being called to the Police station for ‘enquiry’ or ‘verification’, only to be arrested once they show up. Our latest reports suggest Belal Nadeem, another member of Jamia Coordination Committee, has been called to the local Police station and taken away to Lodhi Colony Police Station today. We are yet to receive his updates.
This presents a frightening scenario – that of a democratic state unleashing its fury upon its voices of dissent, that of the guardians of the state turning against its own students and women, that of a nation using the lockdown ensuing from a global pandemic to isolate, terrorise and victimise its own people. You may or may not have sympathised with our protests and its goals – but we hope you can see the ethical and constitutional wrongness of a powerful state victimising its unarmed youth and women. What makes things more difficult for us is that the Jamia administration too have refused to extend their hands to support us, despite the fact that the administration has aided us during the protest, which had as one of its chief aims condemning the state sponsored violence inside the university.
We don’t believe we were special. Having laboured much to enter a good university and with the prospect of our careers ahead of us, raising against the Government was the last thing on many of our minds. But the Police brutality we were subjected to on December 13th and 15th – even upon those of us who were peacefully studying within the library and the university premises – left us no choice but to raise in non-violent protest against such blatant brutality, which we believe any individual or group with self-respect and dignity would have done . Jamia Millia Islamia founded on the principles of Gandhiji sought him again for guidance after 100 years of its conception. We do not know what narratives reached you of us – in a world where truth is forgotten amongst the war of narratives, we have often felt disheartened at the many ways some major media platforms distort us.
We are thankful too to the many who stood by us – many media platforms, the legal fraternity, civil organisations, students’ and teachers’ associations of universities from around the world and the innumerable common women and men who came to the roads and brought this nation alive. In these dark times, when we do not have much access to legal help, media or the attention of the masses, we are facing persecution. We need your help. Please do not leave us alone to the claws of a vengeful Government.