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A day after the police crackdown in the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) campus in New Delhi, a video of students and alumni cleaning the roads leading to the university has gone viral. The group of volunteers came together to clean up the roads in the New Friends Colony area of Delhi after Monday’s protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and against the Delhi Police’s actions on the campus.
As the protest ended late evening on Monday, a group of protesters noticed the trash that had accumulated outside the gate of the campus and decided to clean it themselves.
In the video, the group of men are seen picking papers, sweeping the litter and putting them in big plastic bags for disposal in spite of the chilly weather. Shiraz Sheikh Babu was one of the volunteers and is an alumnus of JMI, presently working as a research associate. Babu told indianexpress.com that after the protests came to an end they noticed the litter and decided to clean it.
“It was around 10 pm when the protest ended, and we thought we should clean it ourselves. With the ongoing protests, there was a lot of trash lying outside the campus’s main gate. So, around 10 or 12 of us, present students—both undergraduates and M.A level—and members of the alumni picked up everything to clean the area,” he said in a telephonic interview.
“There was a sense of fear and anger among students and everyone in the campus, but we did what needed to be done to keep the surroundings clean,” he said.
The photos and videos of the cleanliness drive got a lot of attention online and plenty of people praised them for their actions.
https://twitter.com/DesiPoliticks/status/1206712042025095168
On Tuesday, the Delhi Police said it had arrested 10 people in connection with the violence on Sunday evening. A police spokesperson said most of the accused have a criminal background and none of them are students.
Hearing allegations of police excesses on students protesting against the new citizenship law at Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, the Supreme Court said high courts should be approached first. (Here are the latest developments)
The Congress, the Left, SP and RJD came together on Monday to condemn Delhi Police’s actions on Sunday. “The way police forced their way into the university, assaulted students even in libraries and toilets… the police entered the university without permission of the authorities… And they did not even leave girl students… this is barbaric… there should be a judicial inquiry,” Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
The ripple effect of police action inside Jamia Millia Islamia was also felt across Delhi, with protests, both spontaneous and organised, erupting across campuses and public places.
