Sloganeering continued to reverberate in the Capital on Tuesday when hundreds of students and teachers from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia amalgamated to march against ABVP and their idea of nationalism.
Making the way through the streets of North Campus towards the Arts Faculty building, the march incorporated protesters mainly from left forums.
Several eminent leaders including CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, JD(U) leader KC Tyagi and activist Kavita Krishnan were also seen joining the protesting students’ march against ABVP in North Campus area.
Addressing the gathering, Yechury quoted Jawaharlal Nehru, “What do a university should stand forIJ A University stands for humanism and tolerance. If all is well with the University then all is well with my country.”
The agitating students echoed that the protest is not an individual battle but a common dissent retrieving liberty to debate and discuss in a healthy way.
One of the supporters of AISA, who wants her name not to be revealed added, “The track record of violence of ABVP is long. What happened in Ramjas College was absolutely a planned one and had nothing to do with the presence of Umar Khalid. Today's protest is an obligatory to let the students not go on with the fear of ABVP.”
Talking about teachers’ participation in the march, Abdul, a Political Science teacher in Indraprastha College told The Pioneer, “There are many students who are not directly affiliated to any political party and are not actively political but they want their liberal space and thus the participation shows their feeling of being threatened.”
“Slogans have certain purposes but then it does not decide everything. It's kind of a motivational fixation. There should be a free space to talk and debate, when the space is curbed flow of thoughts is blockade", added Abdul.
In a way further, restricting the repetition of clashes, the heavy deployed police officials made the former President of the JNUSU, Kanhaiya Kumar exit through the back gate when some ABVP members started occupying the protest ground.
The DU march came to an end with the announcement of march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar on 4 March.