New Delhi: The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) led a Delhi University Students’ Union “Tiranga March” from Ramjas College to Arts Faculty on Monday as a protest against some Left-wing students allegedly supporting anti-national activities.
While raising “Vande Mataram” slogans and calling it a “march for the nation”, the RSS-backed students’ union carried the national flag as they marched from college’s parking area to the Arts Faculty.
They used social media with hashtags, #March4nation, #IstandwithRamjas and #Istandwithnationalism, to call upon more students to join the march.
An ABVP activist said they were protesting against the All-India Students Association (AISA) for shouting anti-India slogans. “What happened in JNU, we will not let it happen in Ramjas,” he said. Following the march, Rashtrawadi Shikshak Sangh, an RSS-affiliated teachers’ body, also staged a silent protest at Arts Faculty on Monday, demanding “check on abuse of freedom of speech and expression by the Left groups”.
The teachers blamed DUTA president Nandita Narain for misusing her mandate to support the anti-India campaign that is being openly carried out by the communists in this country. Meanwhile, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) also held a meeting at the JNU campus where DU professors, including Nandini Sundar, Rajeev Kanwar and some other DU students, addressed the public and spoke against the violence at Ramjas College.
AISA, however, alleged the attacks, threats and abuses on social media, and slogans in the rally as ABVP’s intention to hijack DU and intimidate students and teachers in submitting to their brand of jingoism.
“There is a method to this madness by the ABVP as seen in many other universities earlier. For them, students of FTII, IIT-Madras, JNU, HCU, AMU and DU are all anti-national. Finance minister Arun Jaitley emboldens them when he calls the thousands of teachers and students expressing their anger against this violence as subversive elements. But if violence is the norm that they want to impose, then we shall subvert the norm of violence,” said AISA DU president Kawalpreet Kaur.
Meanwhile, the Delhi University and JNU campuses are set to witness more marches and counter-marches on Tuesday as Left-affiliated AISA, Congress -backed NSUI and JNU teachers are planning to intensify their anguish against the Ramjas College violence.
Congress-affiliated NSUI will also be organising a symbolic one-day hunger strike at Arts faculty followed by a “Mashaal” rally. “While we stand against the ABVP strongly in their attempts to curb students’ freedom of expression and misusing ‘nationalism’ to further their agenda, we also condemn the violent ways of the Left in handling of the situation,” a statement by NSUI said.
