“Down, down Delhi Police…..Shame, shame Delhi Police!!” rang through the air on Monday morning at Bengaluru’s Town Hall. A crowd mostly of students and young professionals had gathered for a flash protest against the violent and co-ordinated mob attack on Sunday night at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Chanting patriotic, pro-Constitution and revolutionary slogans hailing Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar and Savitribhai Phule among others, the protesters demanded justice for the students who were brutally attacked allegedly by ABVP and goons from outside campus.
Waving the national flag, and carrying placards, the protesters shouted slogans in Kannada, English, Urdu and Hindi and condemned the central government for the atrocities in over the last one month against those opposing the NRC and the CAA. There were mentions of the police excesses in Jamila Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and the clampdown in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 too.
“Down, down ABVP…..Down, down Amit Shah….Down, down BJP… Raise your voice against the goons, central government shame, shame!” shouted the protesters in unison.
Condemning the inaction of the police and JNU administration in stopping the violence against students, the crowd sought the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah to whom the Delhi Police reports. The protesters also called for the resignation of the JNU V-C Jagadesh Kumar. Other slogans pledged support to the students of JNU and condemned the present administration.
Visuals from Januray 6 protest in Townhall, Bengaluru against JNU violence pic.twitter.com/CIN1kEKozP
— Ravichandran (@ravirockz999) January 6, 2020
Following Sunday’s attack in which 28 people including JNU Student Union leader Aishe Ghosh and Professor Sucharita Sen had to be admitted in AIIMS, the JNU students union had called their V-C a “mobster who perpetuates violence in the university he is supposed to administer.”
Ria, a Delhi-based professional visiting her Bengaluru her hometown was part one of the participants at the protest. She said, “I studied in Delhi University only recently and had friends in JNU. You cannot enter without a student ID after dark. And even if you have a friend in the campus, you have to have an insider accompanying you from the gate. This means that the JNU-administration was a party to the attack," she alleged.
She added, “There is a sense of helplessness. What will you do when doctors are attacked and the police do not let lawyers inside the police station? I do not know how can I save my country from this situation but I have come in support for the students who were attacked mercilessly.”
Media reports and those following the developments in the national capital have alleged that left-leaning and Muslim students were specifically targeted by the masked intruders.
A a city-based businessman Syed Rehan, who was at the protets, said, “What happened yesterday was the display of the sick mindedness of the BJP-RSS whose ideas these ABVP goons subscribe to. We are losing our space in the world map, our GDP is dwindling but they (the central government) is playing communal politics. There was so much violence and murders by the police in Uttar Pradesh but the government wants to distract the public by highlighting the death of one Sikh man in Pakistan to trigger riots.”
Similarly, another protester, Rahul B is a business analyst working in a firm in Bengaluru’s Whitefield and had called in sick at work to participate for the protests in Bengaluru. He said, “Our country is plagued with so many problems but all they want is to promote pseudo nationalism."