Ciminalization of protest In a democracy, the right to protest is inherent in the right to freedom of speech and expression. In Indian Constitution, this right in enshrined under Article 19(1) (a), albeit with certain limitations or reasonable restrictions. Protests have been widely used as tool of dissent in India against government authorities and its agencies. But there is a stark difference in how protests were handled in the pre-2014 times versus how they are viewed today. Not only has the word ‘protest’ gotten a negative connotation and viewed as an ‘anti-national’ activity, the State has increasingly dealt with protests with an iron hand in the past few years. After the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 was passed in a roughshod way without entertaining legitimate amendments from the Opposition, there was a major outbreak of protests across the country. The CAA 2019 is viewed as a highly divisive law with the ultimate aim HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA - Status Report 2021 by IAMC
to discriminate against Muslim minorities from outside the country and eventually also to be used as a weapon against the ones within. Briefly, the law enabled religious minorities, except Muslims, from three neighboring countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, to get citizenship of India. Without delving deeper into it, the law is prima facie unable to justify reasonable classification as permitted by the Indian Constitution and resorts to abject discrimination on religious grounds which is against the basic tenets and structure of the Indian Constitution. It was against this law that a wave of protests began in different parts of the country. People were out on the streets, being part of peaceful march, rallies and University students were a significant part of these protests. Of the many peaceful anti-CAA protests in Delhi were the protests outside Jamia Milia Islamia 28
