Campus पे Crackdown: The assault on student activism in India

Campus पे Crackdown: The assault on student activism in India | NL Documentary

3 weeks ago 37

#campusprotests #jnu #jamiamilliaislamia #delhiuniversity Subscribe to Newslaundry: https://rzp.io/rzp/5IcpWDKYstud SPECIAL STUDENT OFFER: https://bit.ly/studentsubform From rape to murder, Delhi police personnel have been accused of dragging their feet on several heinous crimes. But paint some graffiti or slogans on a wall inside a university campus and the Delhi police will swing into action in no time. Not only will the slogans be painted white in the blink of an eye, the cops will pick up the students involved and put them behind lockups for writing something as innocuous as “Long live the legacy of Savitri, Fatima.” Ever since a student protest against then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s speech at an event in the Shri Ram College of Commerce in 2013 was quelled by the Delhi police with lathicharge and water cannons, student activism on campus has been under an all-out attack. From removing slogans honouring Dalit and Muslim feminist icons to issuing crushing fines on students for organising peaceful protests, the clampdown on campus dissent has been relentless. With Delhi police entering the university library in Jamia Millia Islamia in wake of anti-CAA and NRC protests with batons and tear gas and JNU students being assaulted by university guards and police personnel for writing slogans against anti-maoist exercise ‘Operation Kagar,’ the crackdown has even often taken scary violent forms. “One student started bleeding from one ear when the police personnel beat him up during questioning,” said JNU student Gaurav. He and 3 other students were first assaulted by JNU guards and then taken to the police station. Their crime? Writing “Stop the war on the people” on a wall in Jawaharlal Nehru university. Such is the stifling of freedom on campus that even a bunch of students sitting around for a group discussion draws the ire of the university administration, students allege. “Any open ground where students would sit around after class has been covered with flower pots and fences have been installed around them to discourage students from spending time in university outside the classroom,” said Shubhojeet, a student, on how space for dissent has been clandestinely reduced in Ambedkar University Delhi. In Delhi University, at least 8 students were suspended and 2 were debarred from the campus over a protest held against the ban on screening a BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi. Protestors allege that they had also been subjected to brutal use of force. The students see the curb on protests and suppression of all kinds of forms of expression in universities not only as an attack on their voices but as part of a larger systematic attempt at subverting India’s democracy. “The attack is on the democratic tradition that public universities like JNU and HCU [University of Hyderabad] represent,” said a former JNU student. With the ever increasing police presence on campus grounds and the university administration issuing notification after notification against student gatherings, these universities – which were once vibrant spaces for debate and dissent – are now the battleground for a larger war on free speech and critical thought. Mainstream media has also joined the ruling dispensation's siege against campus freedom. TV channels have often dubbed Delhi’s universities as hubs of “anti-national” activities and even presented them as “one of the biggest threats to the country”. The image of these universities has been maligned to such an extent that their students often face difficulties in finding job opportunities. The onslaught has even reached the academic realm . “The attempt is to ensure that every university classroom has a teacher who propagates communal venom,” DU student Abhigyaan said. “You don’t need to declare an Emergency [like in the 1970s] to achieve what has been achieved by fascism today.” Newslaundry’s documentary investigates the systematic assault on student voices and what it says about the state of democracy in India. Watch. Subscribe to Newslaundry: https://rzp.io/rzp/5IcpWDKYstud SPECIAL STUDENT OFFER: https://bit.ly/studentsubform Help us investigate the impunity of India's police: https://rzp.io/rzp/bmCYWOAYsoc 00:00 The changing face of campus protests 02:39 Students on police brutality and the politics behind it 04:45 The impact of the 2016 JNU protests 15:02 Anti-CAA-NRC protests at Jamia 18:03 Voices of affected Jamia students 22:30 Wall of Democracy Explained 23:39 Wall graffiti leads to student-arrest 26:34 AUD’s changing stance on political graffiti 28:38 Police brutality over JNU wall painting 32:29 Protests over BBC Documentary screening 34:40 Rising surveillance on campus 37:06 Questions on basic student rights 39:41 Different universities under attack 40:44 Subscribe to Newslaundry Follow and engage with us on social media: Facebook: https://facebook.com/newslaundry Twitter: https://twitter.com/newslaundry Instagram: https://instagram.com/newslaundry

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