Soaring tension across India for demonstrations held in the middle of the night by students from many universities, in protest against police raids that yesterday, late in the afternoon, entered the campus of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi, and in that of the twin university of Aligarh, in Uttar Pradesh. Several thousand people gathered around midnight in Delhi, in front of the police headquarters, protesting for hours in front of the gates against the violence used by agents in the campus raid. In Mumbai, thousands of students from two universities - the IIT and the ISC - organized midnight marches: protests in solidarity with Jamia Millia also in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and in various cities of Tamil Nadu. A major demonstration against the law on citizenship, promoted by the Trinamool Congress Party, the party of the West Bengal governor Mamata Banerjee, is now underway in Kolkata. Yesterday, in Delhi, following violent clashes with protesters on the streets, protesting against the recent law on citizenship, which penalizes Muslims, the police invaded the Jamia Millia Islamia University campus, beating the guardians. The agents beat boys and girls with batons, threw tear gas, destroyed the library and the mosque where a prayer was taking place and arrested 35 students. Najma Aktar, vice rector of the campus, speaking to the press, condemned the police action and announced that the University will request a high-level investigation into his work.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on violent protests against the new law on citizenship, (the Citizen Amendment Bill), which saw a massive participation of university students throughout the country, trying to calm people with two tweets. In the first tweet, Modi writes that "debate, discussion, dissent are essential elements of our democracy: actions that damage public property and distort normal life are not part of our ethics". In the second tweet, the Premier tries to reassure Muslims, excluded from the green light foreseen by the law: "I unequivocally assure my compatriots that the law will have no consequences on any Indian citizen of any religion. Indians have nothing to worry about : the law only concerns those who have suffered years of persecution abroad and has only India to take refuge in ".
The Indian Supreme Court will hold an urgent hearing tomorrow on what happened yesterday during protests against the new citizenship law at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi and at the Alighar Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh. According to the IANS news agency, the judges have anticipated that they will not be blackmailed while public property is destroyed. "With this", the President added, "we are not saying that the students are responsible and that the police are innocent. We will evaluate in cold blood, but only if the protests from now on will be peaceful".
While the protest against the citizenship law has today infected university students on campus across India, with demonstrations in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, deaths from similar north-east protests in the state of Assam have risen to six. The online site Firstpost writes that the four deaths confirmed by the authorities in Guwahati, the Assam capital, have added two more: a truck driver, who died in hospital from injuries sustained in Saturday's clashes, and a protester, killed by bullets fired by police last December 12, during one of the most violent demonstrations. The events in Assam continue every day with the almost total lock-out of the activities, while the curfew is removed and reconfirmed in fits and starts.