New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia Monday condemned the police action on students protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar said the students faced “psychological damage”.
“There is no compensation for the psychological damage caused to students”, she said.
“A lot of damage has been caused to the university by police personnel. They entered the university campus without permission and beat up students in the library, damaged the property. This is not acceptable…” said Akhtar said at a press conference Monday.
“Not just material damage, our students have also incurred emotional damage. Who is going to pay for the psychological damage to the students?”
Akhtar also condemned the “rumour mongering” after the police action Sunday. “We condemn the rumour mongering going around since yesterday. We will provide the facts to the ministry and higher authorities. We have already given facts about the previous protest to the ministry and will send a report about the latest protest as well.”
There were rumours on social media Sunday night that a Jamia student died during the clash with the police. The university and police authorities both denied any such thing and called it a rumour.
She added that people are using the name of Jamia in a negative way and attributing whatever is happening in the nearby areas as well to the students. “Whatever happens in the Jamia area is also corroborated to the university. It is tarnishing the image of the University,” she said.
Also read: Jamia students’ protest was peaceful, violence started ‘after local residents entered university’
‘How can police enter campus without permission?’
The V-C also expressed her anguish over police entering the campus without permission and attacking students in the library. “How can the Delhi Police enter the campus without permission and then lodge an attack on students in the library,” she said.
According to a video circulating on social media, the Delhi Police had entered the library on the Jamia campus late at night and started beating up students sitting inside. The video also shows the personnel damaging the library property.
A protest called by the students of the university against the CAA took a violent turn Sunday when police resorted to lobbing tear gas shells to disperse them.
Three buses and two bikes were set on fire in the university area, followed by stone-pelting by a group of protestors who allegedly targetted residential buildings and even a hospital, and damaged several vehicles parked on the roads.
Also read: IITs, TISS, Jadavpur, Nadwa — campuses across India come out in support of Jamia students
What a joker. The damage, if any, is nothing compared to that done by the Marxist indoctrination that takes place in your University’s classrooms.
Some of the images we saw were very disturbing. If the government is expected to be a Mai Baap Sarkar, the students are our children. Not expected to be marched out with their hands raised over their heads. In our quest to be “ tough “, “ strong “, we should not lose the common decencies of life.