The high court on Tuesday had granted bail to two Jawaharlal Nehru University students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita and a Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha saying in its anxiety to suppress dissent, the State has blurred the line between right to protest and terrorist activity and if such a mindset gains traction, it would be a "sad day for democracy".
'The idea is to have a place where people can come together and bridge the gap. It will be a contemporary design for the future, and not have the shadows of the past' Ritwik Sharma reports.
Over 300 eminent personalities from the creative and scholarly community of India, including actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mira Nair, vocalist TM Krishna, author Amitav Ghosh and historian Romila Thapar have expressed solidarity with the students and others protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. Writers Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, actors Ratna Patak Shah, Jaaved Jafferi, Nandita Das, Lillete Dubey, sociologist Ashis Nandy, activists Sohail Hashmi and Shabnam Hashmi were also among the signatories.
Despite repeated appeals from the police and the varsity authorities, the protesters refused to end their agitation. Police said the protesters did not have permission to march towards Parliament.
The inter-faith ceremony, where there was a traditional Hindu-style 'hawan' and chants of Sikh 'kirtan', saw participants also reading out the Preamble of the Constitution and taking oath to preserve its "socialist, secular" values.
'Their brave resistance keep our hopes alive that this youth upsurge is strengthening India's democracy and pluralism,' states Mohammad Sajjad.
Mohammad Sajjad salutes the memory of Mushirul Hasan -- historian, thinker, academic, institution builder, -- who passed into the ages this week.
'Is baar vote jati par nahi, kaam par milega.'
The high court directed Pinjra Tod activists Narwal and Kalita and Tanha to surrender their passports and not to offer any inducement to prosecution witnesses or tamper with the evidence in the case.
Inspector Sharma of the Special Cell of Delhi was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi.
'We want Muslims to go about their work and business unhindered.' 'They should not get victimised and that will only come through the process of reconciliation.'
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, around 20 injured students under the Jamia Coordination Committee narrated what they claimed were police brutalities. The students claimed over 50 of them received injuries on their chest, stomach and their private parts during the scuffle.
Prohibitory orders were imposed in Delhi and parts of Karnataka. Police kept tight vigil in Kerala. In Gujarat, 50 people were arrested for Thursday's violence.
Labour rights activist Naudeep Kaur was freed Friday by the Punjab and Haryana high court, which said slapping charges like attempt to murder on her is a 'debatable issue' to be considered at a later stage in the trial.
Protests were held in many cities across the country. So far, no one has been arrested for the attack on students and teachers at JNU even as clamour for resignation of the V-C grew.
The national capital witnessed the worst riots in last three decades this week, with allegations of police acting as mute spectators when angry mobs ran riot on the streets of northeast Delhi.
Kapil was tired of travelling extra kilometeres due to protests at Shaheen Bagh, said his uncle. He said Kapil usually had to travel 10 km to reach home but due to protests, he had to travel 35 km.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher released Zargar on bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and surety of like amount.
The court said that even if there was no direct act of violence attributable to the accused (Zargar), she cannot shy away from her liability under the provisions of the UAPA.
'This poem was written against a fundamentalist called Zia-ul-Haq, a dictator. It is interesting that fundamentalists, all kinds of, don't like this poem'
'1,300 Muslim youth have been arrested since the riots began and pressure has been constantly mounted on the Delhi police to create a narrative that these youths started the riots.'
Four police personnel -- a woman joint commissioner, two women constables and a sub-inspector -- were injured in stone-pelting, the police said, even as reports emerged that some protesters were also hurt.
The Supreme Court had last month ruled that any appeal for votes on the ground of 'religion, race, caste, community or language' amounted to 'corrupt practice' under the electoral law.
'When you are crafting a story, it's always important to see how authentic that story is because if it is authentic and rooted, it will stand the test of time.'
'Why should I as a common man not know where my parents are in Kashmir, how they are doing. It is my right,' student Mohammed Aleem Syed, who moved the Supreme Court to be allowed to visit Kashmir, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'Across several colleges and universities, the story is the same.' 'Generous timings for boys, early deadlines for girls,' says Veenu Sandhu.
Eight Opposition parties joined hands to corner the government over its alleged "sinister" move to "strip" the AMU and the JMIU of their minority status.
'He was such a diverse poet that he wrote the song M bole toh Master of Munnabhai MBBS and also Yeh Rishta kya kehlata hai of Meenaxi.'
'Human trafficking from Bangladesh is a regular phenomenon and those people come here to work or in search of greener pastures. They are all over the country. We are giving them legal recognition and making them citizens so that they don't have to live in fear,' says R Nataraj, AIADMK MLA from Tamil Nadu.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the delegation. She said Modi government was 'shutting down' people's voices and bringing legislations which are not acceptable to them.
Condemning the police crackdown inside Jamia Millia university, several film industry insiders, including one from Hollywood, on Monday rallied behind the university's students and said the government is trying to stifle voices of dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The filmmaker, at the forefront of the criticism against the amended citizenship act, assured the students that he and many others stood behind the students in their long fight.
No one was injured in the incident that came even as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a poll rally in Delhi's northwest Rohini area alleged that those who support terrorists in Kashmir are staging protest at Shaheen Bagh.
Restrictions on the Kalindi Kunj road between Noida and Delhi continued on Friday after it was briefly opened by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday night, officials said. The Delhi Police admitted that the protesters had not blocked the parallel road, but they had barricaded it to provide security to the protest site.
'The government's job is to enable people to live together, not tear them apart.' 'It is supposed to create spaces to work, live and survive -- this country is struggling and this government is saying you have no right of being.' 'It wants to declare human beings illegal. It is the most bizarre nonsense in the world.'
'This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar Number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments...' the home ministry declared in July 2015. 'UID/Aadhaar has been used as a fish bait to ensnare and entrap present and future generations of citizens,' warns Gopal Krishna.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'A very big film director had said yes to me for two-three films.' 'When daddy got to know I am going to be opposite the main guy, he got cold feet.' 'They don't want their investments to get sabotaged by somebody like me who can overshine their son.'
After an RSS affiliate withdrew the invitation to Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi for an iftar, senior Sangh leader Indresh Kumar on Saturday told Pakistan to worry about calls for freedom emerging within that country and stop interfering in Kashmir.
In an unprecedented show of solidarity, thousands of students along with scholars, academics and the intelligentsia on Thursday hit the streets of New Delhi decrying the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar over charges of sedition and demanding his immediate release.
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