Nikhat Fatima, Siyasat.net
Kannur: Being brought up in a family with active participation in politics, where the atmosphere at home and the conversations revolved around politics, it was natural for Ayisha Rumana to become a political activist right from her student days.
Political activism
She entered the field of political activism in 2017 when Gouri Lankesh was brutally shot down by some extremist. Among the activists who came out to protest against the cold blooded murder and demand justice for Gauri Lankehsh was young Ayisha Rumana, who was only 14 years old back then.
After that there was no stopping Aiysha who actively participated in protests against all injustices. Recently Aiysha, resident of Kannur scored 600/600 in her 12th exam making her parents proud.
Ayisha Rumana has always been fearless participated in several protests including the anti CAA protests. She is the vice president of the students organization called Campus front of India from w here draws both her courage and inspiration to stand up for justice against oppression.
Being in Campus front, Aisha shared, “I learnt that ‘this is the politics of the learner and not politicians’ learnings’”.
Aiysha wants to study law as her aim is to become a lawyer and fight for justice. She also wants to fight against the fascist forces of the country, who she feels are out to ruin democracy and secularism of India.
Life time experience
She had a life time experience and learnt first-hand about the atrocities of the police, the discrimination against Muslims in a state that boasts of communist ruling with no leanings towards any religion.
Her experience during this particular protest opened her eyes to the dark reality of fascism in the country and her state Kerala under the guise of secularism.
Sharing her experience with Siyasat.net, she said that a protest was organized under the banner of District Committee of Campus front of India in her town in Kannur against a rape case. The victim was a 10 year old girl from Palathayi village in Kadavathur in Thalasserry, in Kannur district in Kerala. The accused belongs to the Sangh Parivar affiliated with BJP. The police had not charged the accused under the sections of the POCSO Act but under the Juvenile Act. Furthermore he was also granted bail which angered the people and the activists took to the roads to protest.
“When the police arrested us boys and girls and put us behind the bars, I saw the saffronised police who were probably all Sanghis. They beat us all up hurling abuses and saying ‘ Go to Pakistan’. They did not treat even us girls any different, they forcefully dragged inside tugging at our scarves. One of our brothers was hit so badly the police that his body was all covered in blood. We requested for a glass of water for him, but the police rudely replied, that this is not a Masjid” shared Rumana.
“When the public heard about the nuisance inside police station, they were angry and some began taking videos of the police misbehavior. The police then started attacking the public who most of whom were not even protesting. They broke an old man’s head by beating him with their lathis” she continued.
However by afternoon the 4 girls who were protesting were granted bail but the boys were at the police station till evening.
Courage, determination
Rumana and her friends then shared all this on their facebook about the sangh parivar and the sanghi police. Her courage and determination made her popular amongst the youth and they appreciated that she had courageously narrated the police atrocities on the social media.
All efforts to intimidate her failed because of her fearlessness and now the incident had received publicity with many people joining in to fight for justice. Rumana says, ‘though our state kerala was ruled by the communist party, they are supporting the Bjp in this case’.So she feels she can fight such oppressions by becoming a lawyer herself. And her inspiration to become an advocate is drawn from Deepika singh Rajawath, who had taken up the case of the kathua rape incident of 8 year old Asifa.
Her message to other student activists especially from the Muslim community is “We students are tomorrow’s leaders. So it is our duty to shout out against all injustice happening in our country. When we fight against them, they will try to suppress us through Lathis, arrests and even tortures. But we will be like Phoenix bird that is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. So we should be strong in our ideology.”
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad,Gujarat,India based website)