Mayhem at Jamia

Two months after the police crackdown at Jamia Millia Islamia in south Delhi, we still don’t know how far the investigation into the incident has progressed. The lack of clarity on how events unfolded on the campus on December 15 has triggered a flurry of rumours, half-truths and outright lies. A video clip has now surfaced, purportedly showing paramilitary and police personnel — in riot gear, their faces covered with handkerchiefs — thrashing students in the library. In another clip, youths are seen entering the library; yet another one shows persons in the gangway, some covering their faces and at least two carrying stones. The authenticity of these clips — edited or otherwise — will be ascertained as part of the ongoing probe, which seems to be making little headway.

Public buses and police vehicles had been torched during clashes between anti-CAA protesters and cops near Jamia Millia Islamia on December 15. The police claim that they entered the campus, without taking permission from the university authorities, in pursuit of some rioters. The cops beat up students and staff members, allegedly without the need to use force against the students. It’s also doubtful whether the police personnel attempted to distinguish between the troublemakers and bona fide students. The fact that the law-enforcers chose to conceal their identity casts a cloud on the entire operation. The police have been in the denial mode about entering the library, but the footage tells a different story.

A court-monitored probe with a time frame is needed to determine the whole truth, no matter how unpalatable. The inquiry should take into account the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Task Force Report on ‘standard operating procedures to deal with public agitations with non-lethal measures’, which broadly lays down three guidelines: the magistrate/seniormost police officer on the spot would decide the type and quantum of force; the objective of the use of force is to disperse the unlawful assembly, not to punish it; the action must stop after the dispersal of such an assembly. Did the police party stick to these norms on the Jamia premises? If it didn’t, heads should roll.

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