Delhi: AISA students stand up to bulldozer drive

Police crack down on demolition protesters who appeal for people’s unity

A bulldozer demolishing the allegedly illegal part of the house of Javed Mohammad in Allahabad on Sunday.: PTI picture

Pheroze L. Vincent   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |    14.06.22  : The demolition of the house Afreen Fatima, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union councillor, by Allahabad authorities has triggered student protests.

Fatima’s house was bulldozed after the arrest of her father Javed Mohammad, an activist of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind-backed Welfare Party of India, for his alleged involvement in protests against the derogatory remarks on Prophet Mohammed by two now-suspended BJP spokespersons.

A police officer in Uttar Pradesh had suggested on Sunday that Fatima had advised her father on how to organise protests.

At JNU and the University of Hyderabad, the protests had started on Sunday itself, while Jamia Millia Islamia students held demonstrations on Monday. Several students gathered at Uttar Pradesh Bhavan and Jantar Mantar Road in the capital to protest against the demolition. Many were detained.

Fatima is a secretary of the Jamaat-backed students group Fraternity Movement.

The secretary of another Jamaat front, the Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), Musab Qazi, said: “Today, students are the real Opposition in India, questioning the bad policies of the government. This demolition must be seen as part of its pressure tactics against Afreen Fatima and others who were part of the anti-CAA movement.

“We demand action against (now-suspended BJP spokespersons) Nupur Sharma, Naveen Jindal and others who continue to make hate speeches, and we also want action against the police who have targeted Muslim youths in the recent protests.”

SIO, Fraternity Movement and Campus Front of India cadres were taken away from UP Bhavan by the police in buses.

Members of Leftist student groups got the same treatment near Jantar Mantar with the police and the CRPF rounding up supporters of the SFI and the CPIML-Liberation’s All India Students’ Association (AISA).

Protests were curbed even at designated zones such as Jantar Mantar as several Congress activists had already been detained in police stations in the area earlier on Monday for demonstrating against the alleged money-laundering case against their leaders.

AISA Delhi president Abhigyan said: “This spectacle of the bulldozer that the BJP wishes to create and spew venom on the society will be defeated by people’s unity. We want to tell the majority Hindus that the bulldozer is also being run on their livelihoods, education, income and conscience. When pracharaks come and tell you that your neighbour is your enemy, tell them that they are the real enemy.”

The police have called Javed a mastermind of the violence and claim his house was built illegally — charges his organisation denies. They have receipts to show the house belongs to his wife Parveen Fatima.

The Prayagraj Development Authority demolished about “60 per cent” of the two-storey house of Javed, a pump manufacturer who had been arrested on Friday. The protest had turned violent.