AMU students continue protest against CAB, hold ‘open talk’

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students on Thursday continued their opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Bill which was passed both by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The students held an open talk at Bab-e-Syed gate of the university and appealed to the President to return the bill for a review.

“We now appeal to the President of India to return the bill ) for a review because religious bias makes this bill very much against Article 14 and hurts the secular fabric of the nation. Why exclude Muslims? How can a particular community be targeted?” questioned former vice president of Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) Hamza Sufiyan.

The speakers reiterated their commitment to fight the Citizenship Amendment Bill and rejected it in its present format. The local administration ensured heavy security at the AMU circle during the event.

Dr Kafeel Khan, the lecturer who was suspended from the department of paediatrics at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, activist and political analyst Yogendra Yadav and Fawad Shaheen were present as speakers at the ‘Open Talk’.

The AMU students have been staging protests since Monday. They had taken out a procession on the campus and burnt copies of CAB. Police had registered a case against 20 students by name and 500 unidentified people for violation of prohibitory orders.

Former secretary of AMUSU Huzefa Aamir Raashdi has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

“Provisions of the said bill that anyone, except Muslims, facing persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given Indian citizenship, goes against the basic tenets of our constitution. Founders of our constitution envisioned a secular Indian state where no discrimination on the basis of religion, caste and creed will be made but the proposed bill is all set to thwart the very essence of our preamble,” Huzefa Aamir Raashdi said in his letter to the prime minister.

One of the darkest days in independent India’s history: AMUTA

The Aligarh Muslim University Teachers Association (AMUTA) has dubbed the day of the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill by Parliament as “one of the darkest days” in the history of independent India.

AMUTA held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening and passed a resolution stating that the passing of the bill marks a “defeat for justice”. AMUTA announced it would hold a peaceful protest on Friday with the teachers marching from the staff club to Faiz Gate, where they will hand over a memorandum, addressed to the President of India, to the district authorities.

The resolution also condemned the lodging of an FIR by the police against 520 students for holding a protest on the campus on Tuesday night.

The teachers demanded immediate quashing of the FIR.

The students too have announced they will hold a protest march after Friday prayers.

The AMU spokesman said no untoward incident had been reported from any part of the campus since Wednesday.

The annual examinations of the university were being conducted as per schedule, he added.