Today, Tuesday, March 4, the Delhi High Court will hear a plea by one of the 17 students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) against her suspension. Students have been protesting consistently ‘repressive acts by the administration. Jamia students were suspended earlier this month with allegations of “protesting without prior permission” and “defacing public property” made against them. Students had been staging demonstrations against the university’s order banning protests and meetings without permission and the suspension of four PhD scholars for holding a demonstration on December 15, 2024, the fifth anniversary of clashes between the anti-CAA protesters and police on the JMI campus.

In the plea filed on March 1, Umehabbeeba Quadri, a second-semester BA (Hons.) student of Persian studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Languages, has asked JMI to provide videos to substantiate the claims of vandalism and defacement. She has clearly stated, “The atmosphere on the campus has become regressive, and denial of the freedom of speech has become routine. All attempts to obtain permission for holding meetings where speakers are invited to make presentations regarding human rights issues and other relevant issues are being denied.”

After, Umehabbeeba, even more students are expected to move the court over the coming days individually seeking the revocation of their suspensions. One more suspended student, Niranjan, who identified themselves as the ‘Jamia Seventeen’ in their protests against suspensions, said, “Activities such as demonstrations or cultural discussions are not allowed on the campus.”

He added that JMI students used to commemorate the clash between the police and the students each year. “However, this is the first time that show-cause notices were issued by the university administration for observing December 15 as the ‘Resistance Day’.” Mr. Niranjan also spoke about the lack of a representative student body at the university.

The JMI held the last student elections in 2005. The next year, it has banned the poll, saying that the students’ union was “exercising power in areas where it had no jurisdiction”. In 2011, a student went to court against the university’s decision. The matter is still sub-judice.

Talking to Frontline, a master’s student at Jamia Milia Islamia, Callistine said, “This is an experiment to clamp down on the voice of reason, the voice of anti-fascism, the voice of democracy. If they could completely erase Jamia’s history of dissent, they would. But that’s not easy. So they’re doing everything else; they’re taking over the institution.”

This university, established in 1920 as part of the non-cooperation movement led by Gandhi, Jamia Millia Islamia has a long legacy of student activism. Integral to its formation was its struggle against British-controlled education. Its commitment to social justice and resistance has continued through the decades, from the anti-Emergency protests of the 1970s to the “Pinjra Tod [Break the Cage]” movement in 2015, where female students challenged restrictive hostel curfews and policies. In recent years, Jamia was also at the forefront of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2019. The brutal police crackdown on students on December 15, 2019—in which students were assaulted inside their campus and library—is not just part of the systemic repression by the Modi regime against a prestigious educational institution but is observed each year as “Remembrance Day.” Students gather in groups to express solidarity through speeches and poetry—until now. Last December, for the first time, the administration denied students permission to hold the event, shutting down the campus under the pretext of maintenance work. When students proceeded with the protest the following day, four of them received show-cause notices.

In response, the students submitted a 16-page reply to the administration on December 20, which was deemed “unsatisfactory”. A disciplinary committee was then formed on February 3 to take action against Saurabh, a PhD scholar of the Hindi department. On February 9, another PhD student, Jyoti, along with two other students, received notices informing them that a disciplinary committee had been formed against them. “We called for a sit-in protest demanding that no disciplinary committee should be there, as we had done nothing wrong,” said Sajahan, a first-year master’s student of sociology and one of the 17 students suspended.

“Just before the sit-in, on February 9, Jyoti received a notice. So, the sit-in became even more necessary.” The protest began on February 10 in front of Jamia’s central canteen, demanding that the disciplinary action against students targeted for organising the Remembrance Day event be revoked.

Jamia is not an isolated case

Be it the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi or the Delhi University or the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the state has upped its ante on the level of repression.  “Until now, the students of JNU and DU were being illegally detained during protests. Now, the system is coming after us. The action against us is a direct attack on the voices of dissent. The government wants to finish democratic spaces on campuses,” said Uthara, a suspended JMI student to the media.

In other universities elections have been wilfully delayed by chancellors whose ideological affiliation is with the regime.

Background

Last year, in August 2022, a university-wide memorandum was issued, noting that some students with “political agendas” were holding “protests, dharnas and boycott campaigns on the campus for their malafide and political interests” disturbing the “peaceful academic environment” of the university.  Thereafter, more than two years later, in November 2024, a second memorandum was released, allegedly in response to student protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which banned protests and slogans on campus without the administration’s permission. It noted that students had also protested against “other law enforcement agencies of the country on the issues which are not related to the academia as well as to the University.”

This memorandum dated November 26, 2024, read,  “no protests, dharnas, raising slogans against any constitutional dignitaries shall be allowed in any part of the university campus, otherwise disciplinary action against such erring students shall be initiated.” Another notice released by the Property Department of the university on December 20, 2024, prohibited writing slogans or posting posters on campus without permission, introducing a fine of Rs.20,000 and legal action on anyone doing so. The notice also mentioned that “the University is increasing vigilance across the campus with additional monitoring by security personnel and CCTV cameras.”

The memoranda were clearly in preparation for the annual December 15 commemoration. As tensions sharpened, police patrol was increased, strict identification checks have been put in place, and altercations have left students navigating an atmosphere of uncertainty. For many, memories of the forceful entry of and brutal crackdown by Delhi police on the campus following a confrontation with student protestors in December 2019, resurfaced.

Legally curbing expressions of protest

The sit-in by students however continued. Then, a notice dated February 11 accused students of disrupting academics and forcing the closure of the canteen. “But it was the administration that shut the canteen and nearby washrooms, not us,” Callistine pointed out. “It was a strategic move to make other students turn against the protest.” Upping the pressure a la regime, on February 12, the second day of the protest, students’ families began receiving calls from the police. “My father got calls from the Jamia Nagar police station,” said Sajahan. “They told him that if I didn’t leave campus, my degree would be cancelled, an FIR would be filed against me, and I’d be in serious trouble.” Similar calls were made to the parents of other students, warning them to pull their children out of the protest.

“My father was really scared. He told me that you are Muslim in a place where both governments are now BJP. I kept telling them that ‘Jamia is safe, it is the only place where I feel the most safe’. But then this happened,” said Sajahan to the Frontline.

Later that night, at 12:12 am on February 13, Sajahan and some 10 other protesters received suspension letters from the office of the chief proctor while they were at the indefinite sit-in outside the university’s central canteen. The letter stated, “You are suspended with immediate effect due to your acts of vandalism, unauthorised and unlawful protest(s), and defamation of the university.” It also cited provisions of the newly enacted Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), those related to mischief causing damage to property, unlawful assembly, and defamation. In the letters no duration wa suspension has been spelt out, leaving students uncertain about their future.

Direct police action began from the early hours of February 13 when security guards, with the Delhi police officers surrounded the protest site cornered the protesting students when they were asleep and handed them over to the police through a side gate. All this force of 2-300 police officers, clearly a terror tactic was used to detain, then suspend 10 students!

Related:

Crackdown on Student Dissent: Jamia Millia Islamia’s heavy-handed response to peaceful protests

Celebrating Jamia’s Legacy amidst the silence around our missing voices – Meeran

Jamia student leader, Masud Ahmed, gets bail in ED case, to remain in jail in Hathras UAPA case

The post ‘Free speech under threat’: again, Jamia student moves court against ‘highhanded’ suspension appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), presided over by Aruna Roy, has released a fact finding report on the police violence unleashed on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi and other protestors involved in a peaceful march on February 10, 2020. The march was in furtherance of their protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). The police put up barricades and blocked their march towards the Parliament and hence the protestors decided upon a peaceful sit-in at the barricades. But what followed was a brutal attack with the spraying of an unidentified chemical gas, pitiless and ferocious beatings and sexual assault on men and women alike.

The fact finding report has been compiled by NFIW after talking to victims, other students, teachers, activists, medical professionals, administrative staff, and legal professionals. The two main issues highlighted in the testimonials are, the use of chemical gas on peaceful protestors and targeted sexual violence on women.

The gas that was sprayed on the protestors was not tear gas but one that caused immediate immobility, drowsiness and severe headaches. When some activists and students asked the police about it, they claimed it to be mosquito fumigation spray that had drifted to the barricades from Holy Family Hospital. But the claim was found to be false since the hospital was about 1 km away and also, the hospital administration denied any fumigation activity carried out there throughout the entire week. Moreover, the effect of the chemical gas proved so hazardous that patients were checking in with symptoms of palpitations, muscle atrophy and spasms at different medical centres and hospitals in the vicinity.

What is surprising is that no blood or urine samples of such patients were collected in order to identify the chemical, the doctors claimed that even if they got any test done, the chemical would not be identifiable as it left behind no residue but it was found that the doctors were apparently intimidated by policemen in plainclothes to not conduct any tests.

As per the report, there was mostly a pattern followed for beating up protestors. Men were hit on the knees and were sprayed with a mild liquid rendering them immobile, while many were also attacked on their genitals. Women, were however, sprayed on first and then after they collapsed, they were beaten up. The attacks were made with blunt objects such as batons, leather boots and were beaten up using elbows, knees and knuckles as a result of which there was no visible scarring and all injuries were internal. The protestors were beaten up by police personnel without name tags, in plain clothes while some attackers wore jeans, non-police helmets and vests over their civilian clothes thus cementing the suspicion that some anti-social elements were allowed by the police to be a part of this institutional assault on citizens.

The report found that all injuries were mostly on four specific spots: chest, navel, groin and feet. Apart from these, many also took beating on their head and neck. The survivors of the attacks recall that the police were beating them as if they were trying to maim them, fracture their skulls or paralyze them by targeting the spine. Even the physically disabled were not spared by the police.

Further, many victims told the fact-finding team that the police used abusive language and anti-Muslim slurs.

Sexual assault

The report precisely found that about 15 women and 30 men were assaulted in their sensitive, private parts. As per the report, Women were molested by the male policemen, who attempted to tear their clothes, punched their breasts or stomped on them with their boots, as well as tried to insert their batons into the vaginas. Women, as young as 16 and as old as 60, were allegedly sexually assaulted, many of who are now suffering from serious gynaecological complications.

Men were attacked in the groin area and rectum leading to severe injuries.

Beatings on the journey to the police station

About 30 boys who were picked up for being taken to the police station were also beaten up in the bus. Their relatives narrated that when they were released from custody they were unable to move and collapsed with pain.

Demands

The NFIW has demanded that the Ministry of Home Affairs release a white paper on the incidents of February 10; that the government institute a special judicial enquiry to investigate the heinous nature of the crimes perpetuated by the police; a team of doctors and retired judges investigate and submit a public report on the use of chemicals; Implementation of recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee Report of 2013 relating to sexual violence by public servants, safety of witnesses and complainants in cases of sexual assault and setting up special commissioner for women’s safety; police reforms and lastly, compensation to the survivors of the attack.

The complete report may be read here.

Related:

Delhi violence: LG order appointing MHA picked officers way to defend the indefensible?

North-East Delhi Riots: Minorities Commission investigations reveal role of Delhi Police, politicians

Students protested without permission; tear gas was “avoidable”: NHRC report on Jamia violence

The post NFIW report on Jamia violence finds men and women were sexually assaulted appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
A few students have gone on a hunger strike for the last 72 hours, demanding an announcement of elections on campus. These protesting students claim that their struggle is the actual celebration of the foundation day of the university, since the campus was built amidst demand for democracy against the colonial rule that existed in the country prior to 1947.

But it appears that the students and the administrators of the university are at an impasse. However, certain dimensions are worth exploring.

 
The University’s standpoint
 
In response to the demand of the students, the University  issued a clarification on October 23rd after obtaining the official documents of the Writ Petition No.917/2012 titled “Hamidur Rahman Vs. JMI” from the High Court of Delhi.

Interestingly, a major chunk of professors in Jamia come from diverse backgrounds hailing from various central and state level universities. For instance the present Vice Chancellor Professor Talat Ahmad hails from Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, both these universities having active student politics, but what keeps them so apprehensive about restoring it in Jamia is a question that deserves an answer.
 

While these dimensions continue to remain a matter of debate, the ground at Jamia Millia Islamia on one hand is all decorated, well lit and ready to kick off its 97 foundation day. On the other hand, there are students who continue to agitate, giving up food, on the land that once stood for revolution, now turned cold as winter hits Delhi…
 
(Daud Arif is a Mass Communication student at Jamia Millia Islamia, he can be reached at daudarif94@gmail.com)

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