NEW DELHI: The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which singed the Jamia Millia Islamia campus on Sunday, spread to Delhi University (DU) the day after, with activists of Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and CPI-backed All India Students’ Association (AISA) holding raucous demonstrations at the Arts faculty of North Campus.
Scores of activists, affiliated to NSUI and other Left-backed unions, gathered at North Campus and raised slogans condemning the alleged police brutality to crush the students’ protest at Jamia on Sunday.
ALSO READ | Jamia violence: Some political leaders demand probe, others call protestors 'anarchists'
A sizeable police contingent was rushed to the Arts faculty gate after reports of a clash between activists of the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Left-leaning unions in the early hours of Monday.
Even as videos went viral on social media, showing protesting students being dragged away from the scene of the demonstration, police claimed no one was injured in the protest.
ALSO READ | Jamia crackdown: The ripple effect
“We came to register our protest against the brutal assault on Jamia students by the police and the way in which the protesters were paraded with their hands over their heads. The CAA goes against the very principles and ideals that our Constitution was founded on. What proof does the police have to back their claim that there were violent protesters inside Jamia’s library? Many of my friends boycotted their exam scheduled today. The university authorities were informed about the protests last evening and were requested that the exams be postponed. But they refused,” Neel Mahadev, a student of Delhi School of Journalism at DU said.
While students claimed the police selectively cracked down on AISA members, holding a peaceful demonstration at North Campus, the police denied the charge.“No student was detained. They were simply shifted from the scene of the protest,” an officer posted at Maurice Nagar police station said.