College students in TN, Puducherry protest against CAA

The protests over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) intensified on Monday with students from various universities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry bunking classes and taking out protests inside their campuses demanding rollback of the controversial legislation.

The students came out of their classes and raised slogans in solidarity with their counterparts from Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh who were the target of police action on Sunday.

Hundreds of students at the Pondicherry University took out a march on Monday morning demanding immediate rollback of the CAA, which they claimed was grossly “anti-Muslims.” The protesters holding placards that tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah marched on the scenic East Coast Road for a few kms, raising slogans against the Act.

“Long Live Revolution”, “Down Down Amit Shah”, “Repeal CAA” are some of the slogans that were raised by the students at the Pondicherry University. In Chennai, students of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), Loyola College, Mohammad Sathak College of Arts and Science and New College held protests inside their campuses.

At the entrance of the Mohammad Sathak College, hundreds of students condemned the police action against students of Jamia Milia Islamia and AMU and demanded to repeal of CAA. Students at the IIT-M and Loyola College also protested at the entrance of their campuses raising slogans against BJP and the Union Government.

Meanwhile, DMK President M K Stalin expressed concern over the violence in the two universities during protests and asked the Centre to reconsider the decision to implement CAA.

“BJP government must reconsider CAA2019 (Citizenship Amendment Act) in the wake of widespread, continuous protests. Shocked to see visuals of brutal attacks on students in Jamia Milia and Aligarh Muslim University. Every drop of blood spilled will need to be answered for in the days to come," he said.