'Last month, nearly 2,000 scientists and science students from around India signed a public letter condemning the proposed changes to the Citizenship Act as antithetical to the country’s constitutional principles. Since then, The Wire has learned that the heads of multiple institutes whose scholars had signed the letter were contacted by senior government officials and asked for confirmation of their scholars’ actions and, in some cases, possibly an explanation.
'A huge protest march by students of Jawaharlal Nehru University -- bound for Rashtrapati Bhavan --- ended in lathicharge and largescale detentions by the Delhi Police this evening. Frantic footage from the spot showed slogan-shouting students being dragged away and packed into buses by the police. Several students were injured and three busloads of protesters were detained by the police.
'Forget GDP growth rate for the moment. Niti Aayog's SDG Index 2019, released on December 27, 2019, says that more Indians have fallen into poverty, hunger and income inequality in the past two years. This is after a remarkable reduction in poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16...'
'Students of Jyoti Nivas College in Bengaluru on Wednesday alleged that a group of men claiming to be Bharatiya Janata Party workers threatened a JNU-style attack on them if they refused to sign a poster supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act, Deccan Herald reported. The suspected BJP activists heckled the students. This was followed by heated arguments, according to videos on social media. “A team of BJP activists had put up a poster outside our college and were forcing us to sign on the poster and help them gain support for CAA,” said a student.
'“Congratulations. I, citizen of India, congratulate honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). I and my family support this act.” A PRIVATE school in Ahmedabad asked its students, from Classes V to X, to write this message on postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. However, following protests by parents on Wednesday, the school management apologised and called the exercise a “misunderstanding”. The postcards were returned to the parents, who tore them up...'
'On Tuesday, actor Deepika Padukone attended a protest meeting at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University to express solidarity with students who had been injured in violence unleashed by a masked mob on Sunday. Many have blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, for planning the violence. Padukone’s gesture irked some people, who took to social media to make #BoycottChhapaak one of the top trends on Twitter.
'A video, where two men can be seen attempting to take a girl hostage while an elderly woman tries to stop the duo, was shared by Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy on January 15, 2020. In the video, both the women are beaten and pushed around by the men. “A Hindu woman is being picked up by a Muslim in Pakistan in the front of his mother and child. And foolish Hindus are proud of the NRC opposition. There are 55 Islamic countries for 150 million Muslims, there are 69 Christian countries for 250 million Christians. And there is no country for 150 crore Hindus,” tweeted Roy...
'Police thrashed her almost the whole night and told her she was “a Muslim who eats in India, gives birth in India but praises Pakistan”, social activist Sadaf Jafar said after she was released on bail on Tuesday. “Tum log khate India ki ho, bachche India me paida karte ho aur taarif Pakistan ki karte ho,” the Lucknow-based teacher quoted a policeman as telling her while thrashing and slapping her repeatedly. Sadaf was arrested on December 19 during the protests against the amended citizenship act although she had said she did not take part in any violence.
'Police on Tuesday registered a case of murder, kidnap, gang rape and related charges against four persons in connection with the death of a 19-year-old Dalit girl whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village four days after she went missing on January 1. The FIR was registered under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act following protest by hundreds of people from the Dalit community in front of Modasa Rural police station since Monday night...
'Dhanbad Police of Jharkhand has registered a case against more than 3,000 people on Tuesday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including the law against sedition (124 A) for their involvement in a protest against the the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens... Notably, no violence and obstruction was reported during the protest. In fact, there is no mention of the same in the complaint. While there is a mention of inflammatory slogans, it does not go into what those slogans were.
