Because It’s Our Home: Jamia Millia Students Clean Up Roads After Protests On CAA

In Delhi, December 15 wasn’t a regular Sunday. As described by students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), it was a ‘night of horrors’. Several Delhi police officials allegedly stormed the campus by the hundreds and lathi-charged the protesters who raised their voice against Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. The police officials used tear gas to disperse them. 

By nightfall, the issue had snowballed into a standoff inside and outside the university and at the old headquarters of Delhi police in ITO. The echoes of which are now being felt at universities across the country IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad Central University, Delhi University, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Pondicherry University and IIM Bangalore. Holding placards and posters, students all over the country are carrying out protests and candlelight marches to condemn the “brutal” attack by the police.

In between the pictures and videos from the aftermath of violent clashes between the police and Jamia students, a new video has now surfaced on the internet. The video shows a few JMI students and alumni picking papers, collecting all the litter and cleaning the road outside the campus. Take a look at the video:

One of the volunteers cleaning on the roads, Shiraz Sheikh Babu, who is an alumnus of JMI and is presently working as a research associate told a leading daily that after the protests came to an end they noticed the litter and decided to clean it.

 

Twitter

“It was around 10 pm when the protest ended, and we thought we should clean it ourselves. With the ongoing protests, there was a lot of trash lying outside the campus’s main gate. So, around 10 or 12 of us, present students—both undergraduates and M.A level—and members of the alumni picked up everything to clean the area,” he said in an interview.

“There was a sense of fear and anger among students and everyone in the campus, but we did what needed to be done to keep the surroundings clean,” he added. 

Now, that’s what we call true civic-mindedness being shown by the students. Unfortunately, these are the same students fighting for their citizenship with the government. We are lauding their effort and so is Twitter. Here’s what Tweeple are saying:

Twitter

Twitter

Meanwhile, the protests have resumed at Jamia. The students are now also protesting against the police entering the university campus. Can police enter university campuses without seeking permission from the authorities–is the question that is now being debated over. 

We are hoping that the situation returns to normal soon.

Featured Image: Twitter

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