A day after nationalist group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) held its 'Tiranga' march in the Indian national capital, hundreds of students and teachers from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (DU) on Tuesday gathered at Khalsa College to participate in the 'Save DU march', to protest against last week's violence at Ramjas College.
The ABVP is a nationalist student group which has been accused of assaulting students and teachers on the campus on Tuesday and Wednesday.
With chants of 'Hum honge Kamyab', 'ABVP why so creepy?' and 'Delhi Police why so sleepy?', the protest march crossed Lady Sri Ram College and moved towards the Arts Faculty.Some students even held up copies of the preamble of the Indian Constitution to assert their rights to protest.
Waving Indian flags, students were also heard shouting "This country is ours, not the fiefdom of thugs. This is not a fight between Left and Right, it is a fight against goondas."
JNU
's Kanhaiya Kumar and Shehla Rashid also joined the anti-ABVP protest march.Tight security has been put in place in view of the march.
Earlier in the day, Delhi University student and daughter of Gurmehar Kaur, who faced much flak for her social media campaign against ABVP, declared that she was withdrawing from the 'Save DU' campaign.
"I'm withdrawing from the campaign. Congratulations everyone. I request to be left alone. I said what I had to say...I have been through a lot and this is all my 20 year self could take :)" she tweeted on Tuesday morning.
Kaur however urged Left-wing students to continue with the planned protest march today. "The campaign is about students and not about me. Please go to the march in huge numbers. Best of luck," she tweeted.
She added, "To anyone questioning my courage and bravery.. I've shown more than enough. One thing is for sure, next time we will think twice before resorting to violence or threats and that's all this was about."
Kaur has been promised security by the Delhi Police after she complained that ABVP cadre threatened to rape her.
The genesis of the ABVP-AISA clash was an invite to JNU student Umar Khalid, facing sedition charges, and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar at Ramjas College on 'Culture of Protests' which was withdrawn by the college authorities following opposition by the ABVP.
This triggered clashes between ABVP and other opposing student groups.
Conversations
The opinions expressed in reader contributions are those of the respective author only, and do not reflect the opinions/views of Trans Asia News.