Protests Alleging Discrimination Against Hindus Reach Jamia Gates

The group, which comprised of 20 to 25 people, allegedly also raised ‘provocative’ slogans against Jinnah.

A group of protesters on Tuesday, 8 May, marched to the gates of Jamia Millia Islamia, shouting slogans that alleged discrimination against Hindu students by the university.

The group, which comprised of 20 to 25 people, allegedly also raised ‘provocative’ slogans against Muhammed Ali Jinnah. It reportedly reached the university’s gate number 7 at around 5:30 pm, when semester exams and entrance tests were still underway.

Speaking to The Quint, Saima Saeed, the media coordinator for Jamia, denied that the protest was held by students from the university.

It wasn’t a protest by students. These people were sloganeering, it was an unidentified mob on the main road of Jamia that runs from Julena to Kalindikunj. That’s a public road over which Jamia has no control or jurisdiction, so we cannot do anything about it. More than 50,000 people might be using that road for commuting everyday. Even the students were aghast at the kind of mob and sloganeering. They (students) were just curious bystanders trying to make sense of the situation.

However, according to a report by The Indian Express, the protests were led by Rahul Tiwari, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member, who reportedly also claimed to be a postgraduate student from the university.

According to the report, Tiwari had put up a Facebook post, which read:

Jin bhi bandhuon ko Jinnah ka samarthan karna hai evam Jamia ke Hindu vidyarthiyon ko dhamkana hai, aaj shaam 6 baje Jullena Evergreen Sweets aaye, unki sutayi ka poora bandobast rakha gaya hai. (Whoever wants to support Jinnah and threaten the Hindu students of Jamia should come to Jullena Evergreen sweets at 6 pm today, they’ll get a proper whacking.)

When questioned over the post, Tiwari told the daily that that the tone was intended to be ‘sarcastic’.

When questioned over Tiwari’s alleged connection with the university, Saeed said:

We’ll have to check that, we don’t want to name anyone right now. We’ll have to find out because it was a group of 25-30 people. From what we know most of them were unknown/unidentified persons.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Times of India, a student named Mohammed Tasleem said the protesters had raised slogans like “Jinnah premi desh chodo” (jinnah lovers leave the country) and “Hinduon ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan” (Hindustan won’t tolerate Hindus being disrespected). He further alleged that a scuffle took place between the students and the protesters.

Some of the students got angry at the allegations that the people at Jamia disrespect the Hindu students. This led to an argument and a scuffle took place.

Some students also told the daily that the protesters belonged to Jamia Millia Ismalia. Tasleem called for the protesting Jamia students to be banned from the university, as they had “intended to malign the secular name of Jamia’’.

The Indian Express reported that by nightfall, the campus had turned into a “scene of protests”, with students shooting retaliatory slogans demanding action against the protesters.

According to The Times of India, the university released a statement requesting for peace to be maintained on campus so as to aid the exams. The statement further said that the administration could not take action per se, as the protests had happened outside the campus.

The administration has, however, reached out to the police for assistance regarding security arrangment. Saeed said:

We have approached the police. We have asked them to step up security, beef up security in and around the campus, especially around access points of the campus.

However, no FIR has been filed yet regarding the protests, she said.

(With inputs from The Times of India and The Indian Express)

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