Hundreds of students and activists gathered at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus to demonstrate against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Mumbaikars also condemned the Delhi police crackdown on the Jamia Milia Islamia campus on 15 October. They demand an independent judicial probe into the violence inside the campus.
“The citizenship Amendment Bill is unconstitutional, first of all. Then, when protests broke out across the country against something that is unconstitutional, they went after these protests and brutalised students and that just is appalling. It is absolutely unacceptable and brutalising students in their space of education, inside a mosque, a library, is crossing limits that just can’t be crossed in a democratic country.”
Voicing her anger against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Pooja, a protestor said, “I am ashamed to be a citizen of this country when my fellow citizens are being persecuted for their religion. I am fighting for my democracy, my country and the values that this nation once stood for.”
Demanding the Citizenship Amendment Act be revoked, the agitators alleged that the Act is discriminatory in nature and reeks of divisive politics.
“It proposes to grant citizenship to everyone except Muslims who have migrated to India from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. This Act goes against the basic idea of India as an inclusive, diverse, secular and democratic nation envisaged by the founding fathers of our Constitution. It is part of the agenda of communal polarisation and we are sure the people of India will not fall prey to such divisive politics.”
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