Arundhati Roy visits Jamia to express solidarity with students protesting CAA and NRC, says 'maybe one day govt will be in detention centre'

On Saturday, author Arundhati Roy visited Jamia Millia Islamia to express solidarity with the students who had been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). According to a report in  The Indian Express, Roy told students, “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 azaad (free). We won’t back down.” She also addressed the students and raised slogans of ‘inquilab zindabad’, ‘Jamia zindabad’, ‘JNU zindabad’. Roy visited gate number seven of the university, which has become a site of protest against the police action and donated books to the library run by students. [caption id=“attachment_7895771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Arundhati Roy. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] On 15 December, the Delhi police had barged into the library of Jamia and allegedly used force against students who were protesting against CAA, NRC. The Union government on Friday issued a  formal notification  on the law. Since the CAA was passed by the Parliament on 11 December, Roy, along with leading writers and artists, has described the new law as “divisive, discriminatory and unconstitutional”, and demanded its withdrawal. The CAA allows Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, who faced religious presecution, and came to India before 31 December, 2014, to get citizenship in India. With inputs from PTI