A few minutes before midnight on Wednesday, the street outside Jamia Millia Islamia was turning up with cheers from the audience, as performers on stage sang parody songs criticizing government policies. The scene changed as the clock struck 12.
The phone momentarily went up in the air to record, a man hoisting the tricolor near the main gate of Jamia, the hijab-clad women accommodated themselves to their children, and they soon began singing the national anthem. As the national anthem ended, they resonated with the slogans of ‘ai Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and aba Inquilab Zindabad.
Alija Haider, a Class 8 student, was among those protesters who came to attend the New Year’s Revolution program organized by Jamia students on Tuesday night. With a candle in one hand and a plank in the other, he was hung near Varsity’s gate number 7, a few steps from BR Ambedkar’s large poster.
“Usually, we go to the New Friends Colony Community Center to celebrate the New Year. But this year, we came here because it is more important. A lot of effort went into drafting our constitution, we cannot let it go in vain or let anyone change it, ”Hyder said.
Hundreds of others, such as Hyder, have been participating in demonstrations outside the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which began on 15 December following violent clashes between protesters and police.
“He entered the campus and beat up students studying. If our children are not safe where they study, what should we celebrate? We are here to express our disagreement, ”said local resident Maria Sheikh.
Programs in Jamia, which included musical performances based on the theme of the revolution, ended after midnight with protesters calling for a visit to Shaheen Bagh – where locals engaged in indefinite sit-ins, blocking the GD Birla Marg done. 17 days now. About 200 shops in the area, including major factory outlets, have been closed for more than two weeks. However, the protesters have one thing to say: We will not move until the CAA is repealed. Last week, the Delhi Police wrote to the protesters urging them to clear the road as the sit-in protest blocked an important road – number 13A – that connects Delhi and Noida. For the last 17 days, traffic police have diverted traffic from 13A to other roads, causing traffic jams in many parts of South Delhi.
Like Jamia, Shaheen Bagh also welcomed the New Year with the national anthem, followed by a night-long chorus filled with revolutionary songs and poems for tea, biryani, and ice cream. The crowd started around midnight as people from various parts of the city reached Shaheen Bagh to show their solidarity, including activists like Harsh Mander, Kafeel Khan, Yogendra Yadav, and actor Zeeshan Ayub. The protesters were also collecting messages in a cardboard box which they were planning to send to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office.
Natasha, a Ph.D. scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was among those who said she ate a house party to welcome the new year at Shaheen Bagh. “I was not in Delhi when this protest started. I reached Delhi on Monday and knew that I had to come here. The energy here is exploding. People are telling their children about the things happening in our lives, which is very important. Protests here give me hope because they bring a discourse on resistance.
Painted the tricolor on her cheek, 18-year-old Sumaiya Khan was among the protesters who regularly visited Shaheen Bagh. “One of the most important things is that the women of Shaheen Bagh are out to protest. Earlier, our mothers would not let us out of their homes for so long. But now, they ask us to wait till they are done with our work and join us, ”she said returning home at 2 pm.
Her 17-year-old cousin Sheba Naz from Jharkhand said she usually went home by 11 pm but decided to stay till midnight on Tuesday. “Celebrating the new year is not just dancing and going out. It is more important to come here to save our constitution. We are medical aspirants. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) takes place just before my exam in May, so the conversation in our house has intensified. That is why these protests are important for everyone, ”she said.
Speaking on the occasion of the women protesters who are sitting there, the sisters said, “There are negative perceptions about the hijab wearers. This is why protests are strong for us. We all raise our voices here.
