Arundhati Roy on CAA protests at Jamia: We will not back down

Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy visited Jamia Millia Islamia University today to stand in solidarity with students who were attacked by the Delhi Police. While at the university, the writer brought up the topic of detention centres.

"If we all get together, there won't be a detention centre big enough for us. Maybe there will be a day when this government will be in a detention centre, and all of us azad [free]. We won't back down," she added.

Police violence at JMI ignited protests against the amended Citizenship Act in a nationwide stir. Protesters feared that that the citizenship law, when considered with public announcements of a nationwide citizens register (known as NRC), could make Muslims stateless and may be put into detention centres, whose construction was ordered by the government.

The BJP government said that there had been no discussion on a pan-India NRC, and has repeatedly asked the public not to worry about losing citizenship. It also stated that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would only provide citizenship to minorities who fled religious persecution in three Islamic nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently denied the existence of detention centres -- but was called out by political rivals and media reports that suggested otherwise.

CAA:

The CAA fast-tracks naturalisation for Pakistani, Afghan and Bangladeshi illegal immigrants from six non-Muslim minority religions who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The law came into effect on January 10, 2020 -- a development that indicates the Centre is serious about its vow to not "move back even an inch".

The government's clarifications on the CAA haven't stopped women protesters at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh from demonstrating for weeks at a stretch.

Elsewhere in India, the protests have claimed dozens of lives, particularly in BJP-led Uttar Pradesh.