“You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.”
December 15th, 2024 marked 4 years of the Delhi police entering Jamia campus and assaulting students for partaking in the CAA-NRC protests. The students of Jamia observe this day as “Jamia Resistance Day” and commemorate it by marching on campus. This time, the proctor tried to disrupt it, yet they took out a march on December 16th. This resulted in some organizers getting show cause notices and disciplinary action over the next few weeks. On February 10th, the students decided to organize a sit-in protest to oppose this move of the administration.
The protesting students were picked up from their campus by the guards and handed over to the Delhi Police from a gate that doesn’t have any cameras. They were brutally detained by the police, using force and abusing female students, and were taken to different police stations. Following this, the administration indefinitely suspended these students and even publicly released their personal data including name, photos, contact details, address and political affiliations, posing huge threats to their safety.
In an excellent display of solidarity, students mass boycotted classes at the call of the suspended students.
They gathered around the central canteen and took out a march against their authoritarian RSS-backed administration. The suspended students then held a press meet where they called out the Jamia administration and highlighted its ties with the BJP-RSS. Apart from the revoking of the suspension, the students have put forward five demands in the press conference, which includes “an immediate end to the issuance of show cause notices to students exercising their fundamental rights, revocation of all show-cause notices issued to students for raising their voices, repealing of the official memorandum dated August 29, 2022 and November 29, 2024, an end to the witch-hunt against students for expressing dissent and withdrawal of the notice penalising postering and graffiti on Jamia walls.”
The shrinking of democratic spaces, especially in university campuses, is a disturbing phenomena under this fascist regime. Students and youth have historically played a major role in driving socio-political changes. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the students of JMI in reclaiming democratic spaces and resisting authoritarian administrations.
Students’ Unity Long Live!
