As slogans of ‘azadi’ and protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) echoed through Karnataka, police resorted to lathi-charge and arrested 38 people in Mangaluru after a group of students took to the streets in a demonstration against the controversial law, said an official statement from the police.
Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, protests against CAA by students and citizens remained peaceful.
Multiple demonstrations were reported from across the state on Monday, 16 December, including the one in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus, which ended with another large gathering outside the Town Hall.
38 Protestors Arrested in Mangaluru
“Today few activists of CFI (Campus Front of India), without any permission by police or intimation, formed an unlawful assembly and blocked the road between Jyothi and Balmatta, jeopardizing public peace and order. Even upon clear instructions to disperse they violated the lawful instructions of police and obstructed the discharge of duties by police,” said the police statement.
IISc Students Read Preamble in Protest
Even though an impromptu protest, announced only on Sunday evening, a number of students gathered in IISc on Monday morning. A multi-lingual placard carried by one of the students read, ''Students of Jamia Millia Islamia, we are with you''.
In the protest, which began with a call to remain peaceful but firm in their stand, IISc students read the Preamble of the Constitution of India aloud in unison.
"We are going through a very difficult time in our country where a lot of the foundational values on what our modern republic was built on are under enormous stress. And currently, we are seeing an attack to unroll those gains that were obtained during the freedom struggle and after," Venu Madhav Govindu, faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department told The News Minute.
Town Hall Witnesses More Protests
For the second time in a row, citizens gathered outside Bengaluru’s Town Hall in protest. While Sunday’s protests were against CAA, on Monday several students came out contemning the police excesses against protesting students in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
“This is a democracy and you (government) don’t have the right to change it… Why is this happening in our country? Our silence allowed it. If you are not speaking out, you are supporting it (CAA). All of us are seeing what is happening in Jamia, AMU other universities in the country. If you try to stop us, our voices will get stronger,”Soumya Reddy | Jayanagar MLA
Colleges Issue Warning to Students
After a mobilisation call on social media to take out a rally to Raj Bhavan against the attack on protesting students across the country got traction among students, some colleges in Bengaluru issued warnings against taking part in the protest.
A faculty member of Mount Carmel College, on condition on anonymity, shared a message from the college authorities, which read:
“Please inform the class that no one is allowed to be a part of the protest. The ACP has informed college that there is no official permission and students found participating will be jailed. There will be classes held as usual. Please ask everyone to take down the protest information from their social media sites.”
IIM-Bangalore Joins the Protests
In the wake of the police attack on Jamia students, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) wrote a joint students and faculty letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, "We call upon you to not trample the democratic rights of citizens to peacefully protest an unjust law".
The management school asserted non-violent civil disobedience is at the heart of Indian republic’s founding and urged Modi to ensure that the students are allowed to protest peacefully.
The letter stood in solidarity with the students across the country protesting CAA, and denounced violence even from the custodians of the state, wielding immense power and responsibility.
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