JNU Mob Attack: Protests Continue At Gateway Of India, Celebs Take Part

Protests against the mob attack in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) continue for the second day in front of the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Protesters, mostly college students, were seen with tambourines and guitars in their hands and they were singing songs of revolution. The protests continue throughout the night in front of the Gateway of India in South Mumbai’s Colaba. They were joined by Bollywood celebrities like Swara Bhaskar, Anurag Kashyap, and Vishal Dadlani.

The protests are being organised in solidarity with students who were injured in the mob attack on Sunday evening when masked people brandishing hockey sticks and iron rods stormed the JNU campus in Delhi and systematically targeted them in three hostels. The masked goons also broke windows, furniture, and personal belongings. They also attacked a women’s hostel. In the violence, 34 people were injured.

Mumbai: Students' protest underway at Gateway of India over violence at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University on January 5. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/5813y52W8B

— ANI (@ANI) January 6, 2020

Songs like 'Hum dekhenge', 'Hum honge kamyab', 'Sarfaroshi ki tamanna' rent the air as students of IIT Bombay, TISS, and members of students' organisations, including the ASFI, raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Protesters, waving the tricolour, raised slogans like 'Kagaz nahi dikhayenge' and they demanded the resignation of PM Modi and Shah.

Goons of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attacked students by entering the women’s hostel at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the protesters alleged and demanded that the students’ organisation be banned.

Slogans against Modi-Shah and their “tanashahi (dictatorship)” were raised by the protesters as they opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register. They also brought up the issue of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, during their protest.

Heavy police deployment was made at the protest site and water, tea, biscuits and fruits were being served to protesters. Civic bodies made arrangements for toilets. Earlier on Monday, protest were organised near the Hutatma Chowk at Fort, but later permission was denied.

A call was given that people join the protests in front of the Gateway of India. Demonstrations had started thereafter Sunday midnight.

The organisers had asked participants to bring food, water, bed sheets, jackets, mats, power banks, chargers, medicines.

With PTI Inputs