The events at Jawaharlal Nehru University on February 9, which led to sedition charges, protests and plenty of television outrage, were not a one-off incident. Instead, according to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists who congregated at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday, it was the first of a sustained campaign to divide the country.
“Slogans against India won’t be tolerated,” Satinder Awana, president of the Delhi University Students Union, said to the 500-strong crowd. “Those who are doing it will be punished by the police but if they are not, they should be shot inside their homes.”
Sachin Sharma, a student in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district arrived in Delhi last night in one of the seven buses that he claimed were sent to gather people for the rally on Wednesday by the organisers.
Sharma did not know what the protests about Afzal Guru were all about. “I have heard he [Afzal Guru] is a terrorist who is in jail and nobody should support such people who threaten India or want to take away Kashmir,” Sharma said. “I am here to support ABVP because they are fighting for what’s right. Indian universities are for studying and not participating in anti-national activities which can break our country into parts.”
As DUSU president Awana left the podium for JNUSU’s Joint Secretary Saurabh Kumar from ABVP, a wave of sloganeering gripped Jantar Mantar road. “No more injustice to soldiers,” chanted one group while others raised slogans urging “Go back anti-nationals”. Some of the speakers on the stage also spoke on Kashmir and insisted that India “owns all of it”.
While students arrived from schools, colleges, and even some non-governmental organisations such as Sewa Dham at Ramlila Maidan, bystanders at Jantar Mantar were not as united in their opinion about the JNU incident and the arrest of its student union president Kanhaiya Kumar.
“I have heard that Umar Khalid has terrorist links but if he didn’t kill anyone, he should be let go with a warning,” said Rakesh Kumar Bansal who works in a bank nearby. “Most of the people here do not even know what JNU’s academic importance is and they’re misbehaving with hawkers and people on footpath. I don’t know whom to trust – the media or my gut feeling.”
Standing next to him was an ABVP supporter from Delhi University who was among the few women in the male-dominated crowd. She refused to give her name but said that only three-four people in her class agreed to miss lectures to attend this rally.
“I am here to stand with the nationalists who are fighting for our country,” she said. “Those who don’t value the sacrifices of our soldiers, the freedom fighters and the current government should not be allowed to live in this country which provides them with so much.”
Here are a few pictures:
