Thursday, March 28, 2024

Jamia teachers and students protest against CAB, say ‘Surreptitiously Islamophobic Bill’

Photo: Shakeeb KPA/Maktoob

Jamia Millia Islamia students and teachers protested against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and said that it is unconstitutional and anti-Muslim.

Jamia Teachers Association called a meeting of it’s executive committee on Tuesday to discuss the Bill. The details of CAB contents were discussed and it was found that said Bill suffers with original spirit of national constitution.

“Foreseeing the impacts of the biased approach of government against Muslim minority with mala fide intentions, Jamia Teachers Association will organize a protest on Friday inside the campus,” Majid Ali, secretary of JTA said.

“The government has designed the CAB to exclusively target the Muslims. Jamia has played a great and decisive role in freedom movement of India. The time has come for the nation to protect the constitution and the very spirit of national constitution,” he added.

Hundreds of students also took out a protest gathering against the bill on Tuesday.

“This is a surreptitiously Islamophobic bill which takes the very essence of the Indian constitution for a ride by intending to discriminate and divide the country on the basis of religion.” the protesters said.

Addressing the protest demonstration near central canteen of varsity, various students in unison asserted that “As the students of a minority university, we have every reason to believe, with hindsight, that this bill, if allowed to enter the statute books, is anything but indeed the beginning of a specter of another partition for us (Muslims) living in India, therefore rendering the sacrifices of our ancestors during freedom struggle as a sacrifice in futility.”

“This bill wreaks of a subtle vicious indoctrination of the majority community without the community realizing it. The bill demands something almost as dehumanizing as: a clear separation of right to citizenship in India, based on religion while subtly projecting Muslims as a ‘dangerous other’,” they said in joint statement released by the students collectives of Jamia Millia Islamia.

“The glaring discrimination in this bill is a telling reflection of structural Islamophobia in India. The student’s community will assert their right to defend the principles of equality, religious pluralism and freedom safeguarded by Indian constitution and save the soul of India from fascist forces by hitting the streets. We urge all the conscious citizens of this country to condemn this bill and resist the religious onslaught that’s unfolding in an ugly manner before it ignites the powder keg of communal hatred again and drives our base instincts. As Muslim students of a minority Muslim institution, we have this to say to the ruling regime: We are here to stay, come what may and that you will always finds in the ranks of those who resist and speak truth to power,” the statement says.

“This is for the powers that be: that Muslims of this country refuse to be sacrificial commodities and our bodies will not be a battleground for your destructive and nefarious agendas. Why is there a criminal silence from the self-proclaimed Indian liberals? It is because they have also furthered their agendas at the expense of our identity. Indian liberals with their hollow rhetoric and deeply patronizing politics have been a pivotal vehicle for the creation of such an Islamophobic environment in India,” students expressed their anger on India’s religion-based Bill.

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