Students, activists gather to mark two years since police violence inside JMI

New Delhi: Two years after the Delhi Police and paramilitary officers forced their way into the Jamia Millia Islamia campus here and brutally beat students up, students who faced the police violence, on Wednesday, gathered at the Press Club of India along with several other prominent anti-CAA activists and civil society members to remember the state excesses unleashed upon the students during the anti-CAA protests here.

Students who were inside the campus that night showed up at the event, which also showcased photographs from the initial anti-CAA protests outside the JMI campus in December 2019. Even as one of the students, Akhtarista Ansari, said that they will not allow such instances of state excess to silence them, activists and fact-finding teams presented their reports on the violence and concluded that the police used excessive force on students without showing restraint.

Noted author Arundhati Roy, spoke at the event as the Guest of Honour, where she spoke at length about the discriminatory nature of the CAA and NRC. She said that laws such as these would cut the ground from under the feet of the citizens, adding that the laws target the Muslim community without a doubt. "This was done in Nazi Germany where the state could decide who is a citizen based on a few documents," she said.

Roy also spoke about how students had been demonised for wanting to stand up for their rights. "Those who have been arrested on grounds of terrorist activity, have been arrested knowing that they are not terrorists. GN Sai Baba is not a terrorist, Sudha Bhardwaj is not a terrorist, Anand Teltumbde is not a terrorist... Umar Khalid is not a terrorist, Sharjeel Imam is not a terrorist... none of them are terrorists," she said, before adding that the government will have to take back the CAA — just as it did the three farm laws.

Meanwhile, student activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal

Tanha and Safoora Zargar were also at the event to show solidarity with the students of Jamia.