NEW DELHI: A Dalit hero who addressed a meeting of angry protesters at Delhi’s historic Jama Masjid was arrested on Saturday, while Muslim clerics who fought for arbitrary divorce rights of men were notable absentees against a law on citizenship that has riled the secular opposition parties.

Among those who have failed to take a clear stand either against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the latter proposed by Home Minister Amit Shah to be imposed across the country to filter out “illegal immigrants”, were the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid and leaders of the Deoband seminary, reports said.

The vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University has been accused of letting students be attacked vici­ously inside the university campus.

Deoband is located close to Delhi in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh where angry marches have taken place. Most brutal assaults on demonstrations have been witnessed in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka where the BJP controls police, reports said.

At least 15 people have died in violence across Uttar Pradesh over the controversial law

At least 15 people have died in violence across Uttar Pradesh alone over the amended citizenship law, passed by parliament on Dec 11. Reports from the north-eastern state of Assam said massive protests have continued to rage with the participation of Hindus and Muslims, pretty much the story everywhere.

Reports from Uttar Pradesh said over 260 cops have also been injured in the violence since Thursday.

Protests broke out in Rampur abutting the western Uttar Pradesh on Saturday and one person was reported to have died. Police say not a single bullet has been fired in Uttar Pradesh.

Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University saw women students leading demonstrations, which were then joined by men. There were recitations of Habib Jalib’s poem against a faulty constitution.

Prohibitory orders were issued in areas around the Uttar Pradesh Bhavan in South Delhi’s Chanakyapuri as protests continued at the Jamia campus for the seventh straight day since last Sunday’s violence.

The national capital witnessed protests on Saturday morning as the Dalit hero, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, led a massive protest at the Jamia Masjid and called for a march to Jantar Mantar. In the evening, hundreds took to the streets, defying prohibitory orders.

Curfew has been imposed in some areas of Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district after a march against the citizenship law turned violent on Friday, reports said. The Congress-led state government had placed restrictions on large gatherings in 50 of 52 districts amid violent protests against the law across the country.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India before 2015 because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.

The BJP has proposed a large-scale campaign to dispel what it says is misunderstanding of the citizenship law.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2019