Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray Compares Jamia Crackdown By Delhi Police With Jalianwala Bagh Massacre

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday (17 December) compared the police crackdown against the students of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University, protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), with the Jalianwala Bagh massacre in 1919, reported Hindustan Times.

Condemning the police action against students, the Shiv Sena chief said students were like ‘Yuva bomb’ (young explosives). “What happened at Jamia Millia Islamia, is like Jallianwala Bagh. Students are like a ‘Yuva bomb’. So we request the central government to not do, what they are doing, with students,” he was quoted by news agency ANI as saying.

Earlier, speaking in the state assembly, he said peace could not be maintained in a country where the youth are angry, adding, youth are out strength.

“In a country or a state where the youth are angry, there cannot be peace. The youth are our strength. We will soon be the country with the highest number of youth. Youth power is a bomb and I request the government not to ignite it,” he elucidated while launching attacks on his former ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the protests and violence against the CAA.

The students were protesting against the newly amended Citizenship Act which aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The protests, however, turned violent with mob burning public buses and damaging public property, which led to a brutal crackdown by the Delhi Police.

Jalianwala Bagh massacre has been one of the most remembered events from the Indian freedom struggle. On 13 April, 1919, British officer General Reginald Dyer had ordered his force to open fire at hundreds of unarmed Indians after closing the gates of the Bagh in Punjab’s Amritsar.