Print this article

When protesters 'Occupied' Gateway of India

Last updated on: January 07, 2020 13:44 IST

With tambourines and guitars in their hands and songs of revolution on their lips, people protested against the attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University students throughout the night in front of the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in south Mumbai.

People, including students and women, in large numbers had gathered in front of the Gateway of India in South Mumbai's Colaba on Sunday midnight. They were joined by Bollywood celebrities like Anurag Kashyap, Swara Bhaskar and Vishal Dadlani.

Their reason to congregate: To protest the attack at JNU during which masked people brandishing hockey sticks and iron rods stormed the campus and systematically targeted students in three hostels, unleashing mayhem with sticks, stones and iron rods, hitting inmates and breaking windows, furniture and personal belongings, injuring 34 people.

Songs like ‘Hum dekhenge', ‘Hum honge kamyab', ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna' rent the air as students of IIT Bombay, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and members of students' organisations, including the ASFI, raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Protesters, waiving the tricolour, raised slogans like ‘Kagaz nahi dikhayenge' and ‘Tum kaun ho be'. They demanded the resignation of Modi and Shah.

Heavy police deployment was made at the protest site and water, tea, biscuits and fruits were being served to protesters. Civic bodies made arrangements for toilets.

Demonstrators attend a protest against attacks on the students of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, outside the Gateway of India monument in Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

Students from Mumbai have united to carry out this movement and the word has spread quickly on social media. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

Actor Sushant Singh, who was recently asked to leave the show -- Savdhaan India -- allegedly because of his anti-Citizenship Amendment Act stance, at the Occupy Gateway protest in Mumbai early on Monday. Photograph: ANI Photo

SEE: Girl holds 'Free Kashmir' poster during protest in Mumbai

Various different kinds of placards were displayed at the protest. Photograph: ANI Photo

A girl stands waving the Tricolour outside the Taj hotel in Mumbai near Gateway. Photograph: ANI/Twitter

SEE: Mumbai in solidarity with JNU students

Former JNU student Umar Khalid shouts slogans as he too participates in the Occupy Gateway movement. Photograph: ANI Photo

And while students gathered at Gateway, Mumbai's Carter Road in Bandra too witnessed a protest on Monday night. Bollywood personalities such as Anubhav Sinha, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Dia Mirza, Tapsee Pannu and many others attended the protest. Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar

SEE: #FortheStudents' protest at Mumbai's Carter Road

Video: Pooja Bhatt/Twitter

Slogans, couplets and music rung out in the air in Bandra as the protest went on for more than an hour. Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar

SEE: Vishal Bhardwaj at the protest at Mumbai's Carter Road

Video: Neeraj Ghaywan/Twitter

Edited by Roshneesh K'Maneck