As the FTII protest entered the 96th day, students and scholars from renowned universities in New Delhi expressed their solidarity by sitting in a day-long hunger strike outside I&B Ministry at Shastri Bhawan. But soon after students from FTII, JNU, Delhi University and Jamia Milia Islamia gathered for the sit-in, they were whisked away by the police and detained at the Parliament Street police station for the whole day.
"The protests started at 11am, and soon after we saw Arun Jaitley get inside the building. A few minutes later, the police asked us to either disperse or go to Jantar Mantar. We told them that we were simply sitting quietly without any sloganeering; but they forcibly took us to the police station and detained us," said FTII student Kishalay.
New Delhi district DCP Jatin Narwal said: "The students were protesting in an area where section 144 is imposed. We asked them to go to Jantar Mantar, but they did not."
Narwal said that around 20 students were detained, who were let off around 7pm.
JNU research scholar Nisam, who was part of the hunger strike, said that student organisations in his university are in solidarity. "We are scared that as students we have no say in a university's appointments," he said.
