JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA
New Delhi, India
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DELHI POLICE BRUTALLY ASSAULTS JMI STUDENTS |
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JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA
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Courtesy www.truthindia.com, report also available at www.truthindia.com/page19.html
(An Analytical Report by a Fact Finding Team of the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi on the Police Action in Jamia Millia Islamia) Posted on April 28, 2000
Introduction Jamia Millia Islamia, located in New Delhi is one of the premier centres of higher education in the country. Today, with nearly 7000 students on its rolls and a teaching faculty of around 400 persons, it occupies a place of pride as a Central University. The University has four hostels which accommodate about 800 students. Students are provided hostel accommodation on merit and so only the best from each faculty find a place therein. Students from different community, religion, caste and region study here and live together as one human family. But then, given the location of the campus, students from the Muslim community outnumber the rest. The University has some prestigious educational centres like the Mass Communication Research Centre, College of Engineering etc. and has produced several nationally and internationally renowned scholars and academicians. A product of the Indian National Movement, the University has contributed substantively to the furtherance of Indian nationalism, secularism and democracy. The Background of the Report At around 9:00 PM on April 9th, 2000, a very large contingent of Delhi Police personnel forced their way into the Jamia Millia hostels and brutally assaulted the residents who were preparing for their respective examinations. This police action has led to a debate within the civil society on the manner in which the police is expected to maintain law and order, its relationship with autonomous educational institutions like Universities and Colleges and its anti-minority prejudices. As can be understood from the subsequent sections of this report, this gory event also highlights the dangers to the civil society from a government pursuing a"communal" agenda. The Jamia incident is yet another example of the communalisation of the state apparatus. In the pretext of maintaining law and order the police in an arbitrary, unlawful and inhuman manner directed its force against the "Muslims". This they did presumably to cover up their failure in apprehending two miscreants absconding for more than two months. The way the students, teachers, non-teaching staff and others were assaulted and abused shows the Delhi Police not as a protector of the law but its worst violator. More than law and order enforcement, it seems the primary objective of the police action was to communalise the situation and punish the students residing in the hostels physically and psychologically. University Administration in Transition In January 2000, Mr. Shahid Mehdi, an IAS officer was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia. He took over the reigns of administration from Lt. General Zaki. The fact finding team was told by teachers and students alike that during General Zaki's tenure not a single major incident of violence wasreported from inside the campus; examination related mal-practices were minimal if not non-existent; no teacher was assaulted and no University property damaged by any student. It should be remembered that two and a half years back when General Zaki was appointed as the Vice Chancellor his mandate was to control students' indiscipline, bring the University back on rails by ensuring timely examinations and results and deter "criminals" from using the University premises. Through his often "strong" and "undemocratic" methods he did manage to achieve them. One of his decisions that reflected his "undemocratic" style of functioning was that during his tenure no student's union elections were held. Nevertheless, today the teachers and students in retrospect appreciate General Zaki's work. However, soon after Lt. General Zaki left and Mr. Shahid Mehdi took over as the VC of Jamia student's indiscipline resurfaced. Three such incidents were reported between Jan- Feb, 2000, to the fact-finding team by a group of teachers. The first one was the assault on the Dean, Law Faculty by a group of students. It is alleged that some students were short of the stipulated class attendance percentage, mandatory for appearing in the annual exams. Because the Dean was not sympathetic to their cause he was beaten up. Subsequently, some students reportedly burnt down the Law Faculty office where all the records were kept. An Inquiry Committee which probed the matter blamed the fire on short-circuiting. None were served show cause notices for want of evidence and no student was punished. Another alleged act of student "indiscipline" was the burning of a section of the University Auditorium in January, 2000. The student's problems with the local police officials can be traced back to the days when the new VC assumed office. It is said that sometime in January two groups of student were fighting on the main road outside the campus. A police officer who tried to intervene, possibly to stop the fight, was assaulted. A case of assaulting a police officer was registered at the local police station against two persons, both former students of Jamia Millia. Based on that FIR, the police were looking for the two offenders since January. On the evening of April 9th, 2000, they were traced and when the police tried to arrest them near the "Jamia Stores" which is outside the campus a group of persons, reportedly students, got together and beat up the police party and secured their release. The Police Action: Its Genesis and Content. At about 7:30 PM on the same day that is, April 9th, 2000, three policemen entered the library and tried to take two students with them to the local police station. At that time a large number of students were present in the library preparing for their respective examinations. The policemen believed that these two were the ones wanted for assaulting the police officer and who were evading arrest for the past two months. The students present in the library at that time told the fact finding team that the boys who were being taken were not the ones against whom FIRs had been lodged. There was commotion in the library and someone switched off the library lights and shouted that some students who are preparing for the exams were being troubled by the police. A scuffle took place between the three policemen and the students. The policemen were chased away. However, it is said that before fleeing the policemen had threatened the students that they will return shortly with reinforcement. In an attempt to prevent police reinforcements from entering the campus the students came out and blocked the main road. Around 8:30 PM, 15-20 policemen again came to the University searching for the two former students. Again they were chased away by the students who had blocked the road. Seeing the students in a defiant mood, 2 battalions of police were rushed into the area. Seeing such a large police force those who were protesting sensed trouble and left the scene. The police cleared the road and everything looked normal. . Prof. Shami, the Provost was present in the Boy's hostel and had asked the gatekeeper to lock the gates. Since the trouble was on the main road the student's residing in the hostels had nothing to fear. According to eye witnesses, after clearing the road the 800-1000 strong police force was quiet for about 20-30 minutes. Suddenly, without any provocation they broke open the gates of the SRK Hostel (the largest hostel in the campus). When the Provost questioned their entry he was beaten up. Then the orgy of violence by the Delhi police began. Police Vandalism in the Hostels A visit to the hostel is enough to convince anyone about the scale of vandalism perpetuated by the police on that fateful night. Doors were broken, cupboards pulled out of their hinges, fans and other electronic and electric equipments destroyed. Even the bathroom and the washbasins were not spared. Frightened by the police many students tried to hide themselves by moving from the ground floor to the first floor. But the policemen were not deterred. On the contrary, it is alleged that they attacked the residents of the first floor with more force and vengeance. Their beds were broken, fans damaged, notes and certificates mutilated and cashed looted. Even after 10 days, the hostel rooms bore the marks of the brutal police action. The mosque inside the hostel campus was also not spared. The policemen desecrated the mosque entering with their shoes on and damaging mosque property, like, fans, "durries", time- table, calender, clock, etc. They assaulted the Imam who was busy offering prayers even though he pleaded saying he was not a student. Few students who had taken shelter inside mosque were also beaten mercilessly. One student who requested the policemen to get their shoes off before entering the mosque was thrashed the most. The police party stayed in the hostel for about 12 hours, till 8:00 AM in the morning. They ate the food from the student's mess. Students also alleged that the policemen looted tape-recorders, watches and clocks, bags, driving helmets and cash from their rooms. Those who had undergone the traumatic experience told the fact finding
team that, some 6 to 10 policemen got together to beat up every student. They
started by asking the student's name. When the police came across students who
gave Hindu names they were called liars and beaten more. They also asked some
the name of their father. When a Hindu name was given they again called the
student a liar and beat him up. If the student was a Muslim from Kashmir he was
beaten more than a Muslim student from any other State. The fact finding team
came across two students, from Yemen and Bangladesh respectively, who were
beaten because they hailed from "Islamic" countries. Not content with
physical torture, the policemen also hurled all kinds of unprintable abuses at
the students. Some of the abuses that are indicative of the mind-set of the
policemen on job that night are:
There were incidents involving the police in Jamia Millia in the past too. Some of the teachers and students in the campus told us that on several occasions in the past the Delhi Police had conducted itself in an irresponsible and malicious manner inside the campus and had harassed or beaten up students. But then everyone who had witnessed the police action on the 9th April, 2000, said that it was by far the most brutal attack on Jamia students ever. Students studying for their respective exams in the precincts of their hostel rooms were systematically beaten up inside their rooms and on the pathway leading to the main road. Their torture did not stop even after they were taken to the police station. The students who were arrested said that at the police station they were not only beaten up but subjected to psychological torture. They were called "non-citizens", "anti-nationals", "Pakistanis" and "Muslims" and that they deserved to be beaten up and condemned. Many students told the fact finding team that they were hurt more by these remarks of the police than the physical torture itself. The arrested students were denied food, water and medicine for 20 hours. Those who requested for the same were abused by the constables on duty. A student recalling those traumatic hours said that all the arrested were treated worse than criminals. They were kept in a dinghy lock-up with no fan and toilet facility even though their bodies were bruised (and some even had broken bones), clothes torn and covered with blood stains, and feet uncovered. Their requests for permission to wear their slippers and shoes was denied and they had to wait for the next three days, till the time they came out on bail, to cover their feet. The capabilities of the police officers responsible for the deployment can be judged from the fact that not less that 800- 1000 police personnel were brought to the campus to tackle a group of less than 100-120 young students. The students said that everyone in uniform that night, from constables to the highest officers, behaved as if they were fighting an enemy. Every civilian present inside the campus was beaten up, including the Provost, Imam of the mosque and foreign students. Many non-Muslim students were also beaten up. In their case, the beatings were more severe. One such student recounted that the policemen while beating him up said that, "being a Hindu you are studying in a Muslim institution". These instances expose the communal mind set of those perpetuating the crime. The question that most would ask today is that, Are the students and the University administration also culpable for what happened on April 9th, 2000? The answer would be yes. But then only a section of the students were responsible. Our discussions with the teachers and students showed that the University administration had failed to provide timely information about the presence of anti-social elements in the campus to the police. Also some students instead of helping the University administration and the police in apprehending those who were involved in criminal acts tried to protect them. Still the fact remains that the police action against all students, irrespective of whether they were party to the unruly acts or not and with such force was unwarranted. The police ought to have tackled the matter in a more professional manner rather than themselves behave as "criminals" with scant regard for the law of the land. Torturing a Community not Criminals Jamia Millia is a secular University and one of the prestigious educational institutions of the country. Being one of the first Universities in the country, it has had a history of contributing to the promotion of a secular and democratic India. The police and administration however appear to have carefully forgotten the its secular credentials and used unruly actions from a section of the students to inscribe a communal colour to all the students, teaching faculty and other members of the University. This was one of the rare incidents in recent times when a large contingent of police entered the premises of a Central University without taking permission from the University authorities. They entered the hostel rooms and ransacked them without any search warrant, dragged the students, beat them up and arrested them without any official complains of criminal misconduct against them. In doing so they damaged and looted the personal belongings of the students and destroyed public property, a punishable offence under the law of the country. This the police did in a clandestine manner at the dark of the night. The battalions it seems were composed in such a manner that no member of the minority community was present either in the constabulary or at the commanding officer level. This "communalised" police force could thus be used easily to desecrate and damage a mosque, pelt abuses at "Allah", manhandle the Imam and damage public property. The nature of torture which the police unleashed on the students, teachers, Imam and other staff of the University is unparalleled. They not only became prey to merciless beating by lathis, crash helmets and other heavy objects, one of the students was even thrown from the third floor of the hostel. The brutality of the police did not end with this. After arresting the students, they were transported from one police station to another all through the night without allowing them to sleep, take rest, have food and attend to nature's call. Many among the arrested were even denied medical assistance. Most of the victims spent more than 20 hours without any water and food. The police did not even bother to tell the arrested students under which laws they were arrested and forced them to sign on the papers without even disclosing their contents. The Jamia Incident in Perspective The brutal attack on the students of Jamia Millia by the Delhi police is not a isolated incident. It needs to be analysed within the context of the growing communalisation of the state and the community-centric discourse of the state being developed by the RSS. The basic objective of the RSS and "Sangh Parivar" is to raise socially divisive issues and subvert the secular agenda of the Indian state. The BJP led coalition government at the centre has been making concerted attempts at saffronising the various state institutions. Political institutions and processes are increasingly becoming a threat to the security of its citizens, especially the minorities. Within the context of a communalised state apparatus, the definition of citizenship based on secular, modern and democratic notions of inalienable rights undergoes severe stain. Incidents such as the one at Jamia indicate that secularism as state ideology is not being transformed into secularism as state practice since those who control state power are either perpetuating - or turning a blind eye to - violence against the minorities. With the state talking of a community-centric approach to politics, one needs to discern the underlying framework of relationship between the police and minorities. Our investigation in the aftermath of the Jamia incident has brought to light the vicious mindset of the police who perceive religious minorities, particularly Muslims, in a communal manner. They question their patriotism, their legitimate rights as citizens and their socio-cultural mores and values. The conduct of an average policeman is guided by the same preconceived notions and misconceptions which influence the mindset of a fundamentalist or a person from a communalised civil society. It is such a psychology that governs police reactions during incidents like the one at Jamia. The violence and the attempts to rationalise it post facto is an indicator of a shift towards the communalisation of police and other state institutions. The RSS/BJP attempts at communalising state institutions are part of their larger agenda of changing the character of educational institutions run by minorities and the recent violent attacks on missionary run schools in Uttar Pradesh and the Jamia incident are testimony to this fact. Subversion of secularism and the attempts at changing the character of an institution like Jamia, where Muslim students are in large numbers cannot be done without covert assistance from state institutions. In a liberal democratic and plural society, the police are considered to be a living expression, an embodiment, an implementing arm of democratic law which is not an end in itself, but a means to higher ends on human affairs, such as good order, justice and liberty. The police bases its exercise of performing duty in treating certain categories of the population of their construct as suspects, and to be suspicious is an important quality of the police subculture. This suggests that the police are conventionally involved in building stereotyped images of the population; judging persons on their appearance, their attitude and their socio- historical antecedents. Dealing with such categories that police identifies as embodying disregard and a challenge to their authority in particular, and an affront to the state and government in general, the police uses its discretionary power that permits non- negotiable coercion, to systematically terrorize "insignificant" sections of the society. Consequently, the democratic rights of citizens are threatened and/or suppressed. With such an understanding mapping their mentality, the Jamia incident is not surprising. The cold and authoritarian attitude is becoming of a force that has been regularly communalised by the government of the day. The Response from the Civil Society As is expected from a democratic, informed and proactive civil society, the Jamia incident has evoked sharp criticisms and condemnation from various sections of the people. Peoples' representatives cutting across party lines have joined hands and raised their voice against the police and the government in the Parliament. Dharnas, protest marches and rallies have been organised by the student's community in New Delhi. The teaching community of the University also stood by the students and provided sureties for 66 students in the courts. The incident has also been taken up by civil society groups to call for change in not just the laws but also the mind set of the law enforcers. Even with all this action one can claim that the civil society has not
done enough. The "false cases"against the The Student Community: The student community in Delhi has reacted sharply to the police action on Jamia students. Students representatives from various universities, colleges, research Institutes and other educational institutions have unanimously condemned this attack. At the indefinite dharna in front of the Jamia maingate, representatives from Delhi University, Jamia Hamdard, AMU, and JNU have been actively participating. The students from these universities also staged a protest rally in front of the Parliament House. The Civil Liberties Groups and NGOs: Fact finding teams from several civil liberties groups and NGOs have visited the campus and have published their observations. Notable among them is the report by the PUCL which indicts the Delhi Police for excesses. Citizen's Forum and other groups of concerned individuals have expressed their shock at the actions of the Delhi Police and have condemned it. Political Parties: Representatives of all major political parties have visited the campus, notable among them being ex-Prime Ministers IK Gujral and VP Singh, Shahnawaz Hussain and Shiela Dikshit. They have expressed their shock at the brutal police action. State, Police, Higher Education and Ideology{PRIVATE } For many within the state and the Delhi police Jamia Millia Islamia is
a "Muslim" University. They believe so because roughly 50 percent of
its students hail from the "Muslim" community and the name of the
University is in "Arabic". These ill-informed section within the
administration do not know that like any other Central University in the country
Jamia was also established by an Act of the Parliament and gets funds from the
University Grants Commission. One wonders whether those who labeled Jamia as a
"Muslim" University similarly consider many other Universities which
have practically 100 percent students from the majority "Hindu"
community as Hindu universities. The manner in which the state and police
handled Jamia Millia as an Such perceptions can lead to serious consequences. We could see that the police had homogenised the University and its environs. Everybody in the constituency was viewed as a culprit, anti-national, unpatriotic and thus lacking nation building spirit. The crime of two criminals, who were not directly connected to the University, is construed as the crime of the entire Jamia Millia if not the entire "Muslim" community. Slogans like Jamia Millia students are ISI agents, Pakistani infiltrators, anti-Indians are a consequence of such perceptions. The behaviour of the police is a mere reflection of a communalised civil society. To the extent civil society remains communalised, the police force can be no different. There are reasons to believe that the police did not act on their own. It has to take into confidence senior official and office bearers in the Union Ministry to enter a University Campus. That the situation was "extraordinary", as was allegedly told by a police officer to a University official present in the hostel, and so they are forced to enter the campus without permission will not have many takers. A communal government acts communally and through its communal orders further communalises civil society. A consequence of such communalisation is that the distinction between citizen, community and society get blurred. Every "Muslim", even though he/she is a citizen of this country and a responsible member of the civil society is seen with prejudice. So is the Muslim community. This is communalisation of civil society. Lt. General Zaki may have also contributed to the present situation in the campus. A centre of high learning has to be primarily a learning centre where clash of ideas and ideologies take place. A learning environment needs democratic procedures. While law and order is required in a University, the role of the VC as a head of an institution is more so of a facilitator of ideas than a disciplinarian. That Jamia has not been in the forefront of ideological battles explains the present situation. Only when ideas are esteemed and ideologies encouraged, can universities become centres of thought and learning. General Zaki in his zeal to enforce order within the University seems to have missed this aspect, essential for any centre for higher learning. What has happened in Jamia is merely a reflection of the furtherance of the ideology of "Hindutva" adopted by the BJP, the leader of the NDA coalition government at the Centre. With BJP in power the police force is further communalised. They are willing to do whatever their political asters want them to do. Society cannot go on in this manner. The ascist forces have to be defeated. Recommendations of the Fact Finding Team a) The Police Force should have proportionate representation of people from the minority communities. Immediate steps should be taken towards its realisation. b) Jamia Millia University should evolve an effective ProctorialCommittee consisting of students, teacher and administrators to handleall anti-social activities inside the campus. c) A special professional police force be created to deal with
students' unrest, if at all needed, when d) Attempts should be made to reorient the police force on the
secular ideology of the Indian state through The public reaction to the crimes committed by the police in Jamia Millia has been subdued. It appears as if civil society is silenced or paralysed. In a secular country if secular and progressive groups do not come together to publicly discourse such acts of police vandalism, the future of the country may be at stake.
Members of the Fact Finding Team: Dr. Ambrose Pinto, Dr. Alka Srivastava, BBG Tilak, Somen Chakraborty and Mohammed Asif
Courtesy www.truthindia.com, report also available at www.truthindia.com/page19.html |
