Students at the New Delhi-based university Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) staged a boycott of classes on Monday, February 17, to protest the university administration’s attempts to suppress voices of dissent on campus.
Students marched inside the campus expressing solidarity with their peers who were subjected to police repression last week. They also demanded the immediate withdrawal of all disciplinary actions against student activists and the restoration of democratic space inside the campus.
Jamia Millia Islamia students have taken a bold stand! In a powerful show of solidarity, students across all departments have boycotted classes to protest the unjust suspension of 17 students.#JamiaResists#NotAnInchBack#jamiamilliaislamia pic.twitter.com/43O033K2HA
— SFI- Jamia Millia Islamia (@JmiSfi) February 17, 2025
Protests were organized by left student unions such as Student Federation of India (SFI), All India Student Association (AISA), and others. These organizations have accused the Jamia administration of carrying out the agenda of the ultra right wing government in the country led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to suppress all voices of dissent.
Arrests on campus
Last Thursday, at least 14 students were detained by the Delhi police early in the morning from the protest site inside the campus. Students claimed the detainees were taken to an unknown location and were unreachable for several hours.
Meanwhile the university administration suspended six students, including Sakhi, the unit president of SFI, in an order issued at midnight. Later, the administration suspended the students who had been detained and then released from police detention.
The university administration later even published the personal details of all the detained and suspended students on the campus gate in complete violation of their rights to privacy and putting their personal security in danger.
The students have been protesting since February 10 in support of their demand to withdraw disciplinary actions against two PhD scholars over their involvement in the organization of protests in December.
The university administration, instead of talking to students, called the police, claiming the students were hampering academic activities in the campus and even accused them of indulging in prohibited activities.
Crackdown on dissent
In December, students at JMI organized protests to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the state’s brutal attack on Jamia students in 2019 and to oppose growing attacks on India’s religious minorities under BJP’s majoritarian Hindutva push. The students were able to organize the event despite the administration trying to prevent it by shutting down the campus in anticipation.
On December 15, 2019, hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel entered the university premises forcefully and attacked common students after a march was organized to oppose the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC). The laws were deemed by many as against the secular values in the Indian constitution and discriminatory against the country’s religious minorities.
Successive university administrations have tried to implement BJP’s wider policy of suppressing all kinds of dissent by preventing student activism on campus. This explains why they are so adamant to punish those who raised their voices against the growing religious polarization in the country and organized students to oppose the same, Sanam Hussain, SFI Jamia unit secretary, claimed while talking to Peoples Dispatch.
Several student activists at Jamia, particularly from the left groups, have faced and continue to face disciplinary actions for raising slogans, putting up posters, or for organizing meetings and even study circles. In a statement released last week by the SFI Jamia unit, they outlined that the administration does not allow more than five students to gather inside the campus and orders suspensions and imposes arbitrary fines on students vocal for their rights.
Responding to repeated attacks on the students in the university by the administration, some members of parliament from left parties in India, issued statements asking the university administration to respect the constitutional rights of the students. Some also highlighted the fact that the university has not allowed the restoration of an elected student union for over two decades now.
