Patriot Bureau
Posts by: Patriot Bureau
‘I was detained and given a joyride by Delhi Police’
A journalist’s account of what happened after she was whisked away from Red Fort and thrown onto a bus with Umar Khalid It was a crazy day. What was supposed to be a day reporting on demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Delhi turned into a confrontation with the police, my eventual detention along […]
Believe the disempowered
Mainstream media reinforces the alienation felt by people who live on the margins by ignoring them or reporting on their problems through lenses blurred with ignorance and prejudice The MEDIA’S response to the December 15 violence at Jamia Milia Islamia was no thanks to the so-called “national”, privately owned news channels located in the capital, […]
‘We stand with the youth’
Many of them have memories of the Emergency and they don’t want to see it playing out again “The Emergency then was not as bad as this, an undeclared one. They are creating a wall between people. I don’t know what they think.” Ghayasuddin, 70, stands shoulder-to-shoulder with youths and students in the biting cold […]
Beaten, bruised, pelted with stun grenades: Aligarh students recall a night of horror
The police brutality at Aligarh Muslim University on December 15 left many students severely injured At the Morison Court hostel in Aligarh Muslim University, Faizal Hasan, the former president of the AMU Students’ Union, talked agitatedly into a phone. Speaking to Shamsul Haque, AMU’s dean of students’ welfare, Hasan said angrily, “If anything happens to […]
Pleas in court
60 petitions have been filed so far, and counting The President’s ratification of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, on December 12 triggered a slew of petitions in the Supreme Court less than 12 hours later. By midday, at least a dozen petitions had been filed challenging the constitutional validity of it. The matter — almost […]
Peaceful protests, violent reaction
The police attacked university students as if war had been declared on campuses, fueling fear and panic After the government got the Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Parliament, the whole country erupted in vigorous protests. It all started with the peaceful protests at Jamia Milia Islamia, conducted by the students, which suddenly became violent, when […]
‘I stitch bags for big brands’
After a fire in an illegal Delhi factory kills 43 people, including five children, migrant workers struggle to carry on with their precarious lives but barely earn enough to eat’ On Monday, TV crews jostled for space under the archway that leads to Anaj Mandi, a few hundred meters from the congested Sadar Bazaar, the […]
Citizens unite against Citizenship Bill
The legislation ‘directly violates the secular ideals enshrined in our Constitution’, the protesters say On Monday night, the Lok Sabha passed the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019. The Bill, a promise made by the incumbent BJP in its election manifesto for last May’s general election, is an updated version of a similar legislation that was […]