The Delhi Police on Tuesday preemptively detained several anti-CAA demonstrators protesting at the Ramlila Maidaan after they arrived to participate in a march against the new Citizenship Law. The protest rally was called upon by the Young India Coordination Committee, which comprised members of as many as 50 leftist and left-leaning students bodies.
The Delhi Police detained the protesting students claiming that they did not have the prerequisite permission for carrying out a march to Parliament.
Former JNUSU president N Sail Balaji, who was spearheading the protest march said that they had submitted an application seeking permission for holding a protest rally on February 27 but they were only informed about the permission being rejected on Monday, i.e March 1. Balaji claimed that it was a last-minute communication from the police’s end.
Soon after the government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019, protests erupted in some parts of the country against the legislation. A group of over 50 students organisations from many public and private universities launched a committee called as ‘Young India National Coordination Committee’ on December 24 with the aim to bolster the campaign against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, National Register of Citizen (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).
The committee declared a crusade against the CAA, NPR and NRC and announced that will make attempts to coordinate protests across the country. Kawalpreet Kaur, Delhi University student and president of the left-leaning All India Students’ Association (AISA) spoke at the press conference that Young India Coordination Committee would bring together students group as a coordinated unit and intensify the protest against CAA until the government revoked the law.
Chaos had engulfed several parts of the National Capital last week as anti-CAA protesters went on a rampage, attacking pro-CAA supporters and causing grave damage to public property. The National Capital was soon aflame with communal conflagration as Muslim mob ran riot in the northeast Delhi, specifically targeting Hindu localities, shops and religious places of worship. A frenzied Muslim mob atop AAP councillor Tahir Hussain’s house not only attacked Hindu locals in the region by throwing petrol bombs and stones but also vandalised a Shiva temple in the opposite lane. IB sleuth Ankit Sharma was also reportedly dragged by the mob from inside Tahir’s building before his body was found abandoned in a nearby ditch in Chand Bagh.
The protests sites have often been a flash-point where anti-CAA protesters are goaded into attacking the law enforcement personnel. With this view in mind and the prevalent situation, the Delhi Police denied granting permission to the demonstrators to carry out an anti-CAA rally and stoke passions in the city.
