Raise several issues, ranging from freedom of speech to Najeeb Ahmed and Rohith Vemula, during march
Left-wing students organised a march on Saturday — as part of the protests that started as an anti-hooliganism campaign against the BJP-backed Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — in which several issues, ranging from ‘freedom of speech’ to ‘Justice for Najeeb Ahmed and Rohith Vemula’ to ‘rage’ against the incumbent government, were raised.
The march from Mandi House to Parliament Street also included missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed’s mother. “Don’t forget Najeeb. My son is still missing. Neither the police nor the government is helping us find him. Please keep your fight against Najeeb’s assaulters alive and help me find my son,” said his mother Fatima Nafees.
Amid songs, slogans and poetry, scores of students from Delhi University (DU), along with those from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Milia Islamia, took out the march against ABVP’s alleged role in violent clashes that took place in Ramjas College on February 23. The clashes followed the cancellation of an invitation to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid, after ABVP objected to the invite.
Khalid and Rashid, however, attended Saturday’s ‘citizens’ march’, with several teachers from both DU and JNU also joining them. “They (ABVP) tried to repeat the same ‘national’ versus ‘anti-national’ script in DU as they did in JNU last year. But students’ unity will not let them do the same again,” Khalid said.
Referring to Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu’s remark that slogans for ‘azadi’ will be brought under the ambit of sedition, Khalid said that expecting Naidu to understand the meaning of the word would be too much to ask for.
Carrying placards that read ‘Vaad vivad ki azadi (freedom from division)’ and ‘Throw parties not stones’, protesters gathered at Mandi House metro station at around 2 pm. Raising slogans of ‘azadi from hooliganism, casteism and fascism’, they took out their march to Parliament Street.
“ABVP said that they wouldn’t allow us to raise slogans in Urdu at the DU campus. Today, we came up with more Urdu posters and placards to tell them that we won’t let them dictate us,” said Simran Jha, a Miranda House student, while displaying a poster with the Urdu script on it.
During the march, the protesters also scribbled poems and slogans on the road using colorful chalks, apart from making sketches. “We are not fighting for any ideology. We are here to reclaim our campus space. We want to tell the ABVP-led DUSU that they can’t dictate us. They can’t rob us of our freedom of speech and expression,” said Abinash, a Ramjas College student.
Political figures, including Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja and KC Tyagi of JD(U) among others, also made an appearance and assured the students of raising their issues in Parliament.
Interestingly, a group of 20 slum-dwellers from Mayur Vihar’s Yamuna Pushta area also joined the protest march. “We have been brought here by an NGO. We were told that we can raise our issues and problems here, such as scarcity of electricity and water in our area,” said Chanchal Devi, one of the slum-dwellers.
Delhi University has been witnessing protests since February 23, when hundreds of students associated with AISA and the RSS-backed ABVP had attacked each other, causing serious injuries to many people.
Earlier, on Tuesday, thousands of students had organised a similar protest march against ABVP’s ‘hooliganism’ in the varsity’s north campus, followed by a counter march by ABVP on Thursday.
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