‘Defeat CAA’: DU students ‘attacked, detained’ by Delhi police for staging anti-CAA protest

NEW DELHI: A large section of students in Delhi University staged protests a day after the ministry of home affairs notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024. The Centre implemented the CAA 2019 on Monday, more than four years after the law was passed by the Parliament.

Around 55 protesting students were detained today by the Delhi police, as per initial reports. DU students alleged that they were brutally attacked, manhandled, and detained by the Delhi police. "Clothes of girl students were lifted and torn and boys were also attacked 'brutally' and taken in separate buses. We don't know where they are taking us," a DU student said in a video.

In view of the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) issued an advisory appealing to students to maintain "peace and harmony" on campus.

What is CAA?

Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 grants eligibility for Indian citizenship to religious minorities who migrated from Muslim-majority countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before December 31, 2014. The six communities from these three countries include Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Parsi migrants.

The citizenship amendment Bill was introduced in July in 2016, to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. Subsequently, the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in Rajya Sabha on December 11, 2019, with 125 votes in favour and 99 against. However, students, public, and politicians have been protesting against the amendment.

Why are students protesting?

Student groups across the nation staged several protests in 2019 demanding the Centre to roll back the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Police were deployed in Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi University (DU) and other universities in the national capital to prevent anti-CAA protest and in view of the COVID-19 restriction imposed.

AISA in its latest statement urged students to “resist all attempts to implement communal and divisive CAA! and ensure the defeat of the unconstitutional and undemocratic CAA once again”.

“With the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 being notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday, the BJP-led Central Government has delivered yet another blow to the democracy and secular fabric of the nation. The wide-spread and strong resistance against the patently unjust, discriminatory and divisive CAA in December 2019 and the fight put up by the people to uphold the Constitution and democracy was quelled by the government,” the All India Students’ Association said in a statement.

“With the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it can be stated that the BJP-RSS have made it clear that these elections will be fought on their communal agenda. However, we already see that the people of Assam have clearly rejected these Rules,” it said.

It also alleged that the BJP-led government has implemented CAA 2019 to “distract the people from the on-going electoral bonds scam where the information to be furnished by the State Bank of India regarding the donors who purchased electoral bonds, the amount they have purchased, and the details of political parties which have redeemed these electoral bonds are being deliberately hidden from the people”.

“With inequality (both social and economic), bulldozing houses, dwindling healthcare, unemployment and lack of education opportunities continue to plague the common people of this country, the Sangh Brigade has chosen to ignore these demands of the people, where the farmers are seeking MSP, students are protesting against fee hikes, the youth are demanding dignified employment, the women are fighting for equality and justice, and the Adivasis are fighting to save their forests and lands. Instead, they have purportedly sought to create communal Hindu-Muslim polarisation before the elections, with these CAA Rules,” the Prasenjeet Kumar, AISA general secretary said.