If You Don’t Stand Up For Students Now, When, Asks Yogendra Yadav

“Citizenship Amendment Act is a solution in search of a problem,” says activist and politician Yogendra Yadav. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman

A day after Jamia Millia Islamia University was under siege in Delhi by the police and protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act took place across India, Yogendra Yadav speaks to The Quint on what he witnessed in the Jamia campus in Delhi when the police entered the premises, how students from other universities in India are adding another dimension to the protest against Citizenship Amendment Act and his message to students who are watching what's happening in the country right now.

‘Do We Want to Stigmatise a University?’

Yadav was among the people on-ground during the night of 15 December, and he describes how he visited the hospital and went to the Kalkaji and NFC police stations to meet detained students. On the issue of police entering the University, he said:

“Law gives you permission to catch criminals, to disperse crowds, not to target the defenseless. What is the message we want to give to India’s children? Do we want to stigmatise a university?”

He also asserted that Jamia is a university which “doesn’t just belong to one community” but is a “national heritage.”

‘If Students Don’t Stand in Solidarity Now, then Shame on Youth’

As Jamia University students were dealing with tear-gas shelling and police presence in their campus, students of Jawaharalal Nehru University called a spontaneous protest at ITO, in front of the Delhi Police headquarters. Overnight, protests also took place in Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT Bombay, followed by protests in solidarity in IISc in Bangalore and University of Delhi. Yadav views this outpouring of support “very positively.” Speaking of the need for student solidarity, Yadav said:

“If students don’t stand in solidarity now, then shame on that youth. If you do not stand up for students now, when will you stand up?”

He also said that students all across India should assert three things. One, “say no to assault on campus.” Two, “no to Citizenship Amendment Act” and three, “no to violence.” All students in India should have a “copy of Constitution in one hand, and Saare Jahaan Se Accha... on the lips,” said Yadav.

‘CAA is a Solution in Search of a Problem’

Yadav is hopeful of the impact of students’ agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 on the government. As he sees it, with the students and the recent wave of civil society protests, a “third dimension to the citizen protest has been added.” According to him, the first two phases were the protests in the Northeast against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the second, the protest from the Muslim community.

However, he says that in the third phase, we are seeing a person stating, “neither am I from the Northeast, nor am I a Muslim, but this is wrong.”

Describing the Citizenship Amendment Act as unconstitutional, he said, “what demonetisation did to the economy, CAA did to society.”

“Citizenship Amendment Act is a solution in search of a problem.”