Cops enter Guj Vidyapith campus holding anti-CAA kite-flying

Police entered the Gujarat Vidyapith (GV) campus in Ahmedabad on Tuesday where students had organised an event to fly kites bearing anti-citizenship law messages.

While students claimed that police disrupted the event, a senior officer said they entered the campus as part of "routine patrolling" on inputs that some members of rival student outfits, NSUI and ABVP, might confront each other over flying of anti-CAA kites.

Some students of the varsity said a group of police personnel entered the campus, located on Ashram Road in the city, while they were preparing to celebrate the Uttarayan Festival by flying kites with messages like "India Against CAA", "No NPR, No NCR".

They claimed that police personnel also demanded their identity cards.

When confronted by us, the police personnel told us they had the right to enter the campus without taking anyone's permission, claimed some students in video clips shared with media persons.

"They stopped us and asked us to show identity cards. If required, I would show my I-card to the varsity guard, but why to policemen when we are already inside the campus? They didn't tell us who allowed them to enter the campus," an agitated student said.

The students had organised the kite-flying event with anti-CAA messages printed on them to express solidarity with their counterparts in the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi.

While police had allegedly entered the JMI during anti-citizenship law protests in December, JNU had witnessed violence by masked people on January 5.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) P L Mal said the police entered the campus over a "law and order issue, after receiving inputs that members of NSUI and ABVP may enter into confrontation as some students were planning to fly kites with messages against the CAA".

"Police went to the campus as it was a law and order issue. They came back after conducting a routine patrolling there," Mal said.

The Gujarat Vidyapith was founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919.

The GV administration could not be contacted for comment.

Students of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmemdabad had claimed on January 5 that some policemen had entered the campus when they were organising a candle light march to express solidarity with the students of the JNU and JMI.