The march commenced outside DU's Khalsa College where protestors raised slogans against the ABVP.
Highlights
- Days after clashes at Ramjas, students marched condemning violence
- Protesters calling for a campus free of 'gundagardi' (hooliganism)
- Gurmehar Kaur pulled out of campaign saying she had taken 'all she could'
Two students of Delhi University, who belong to the BJP-linked student organisation ABVP, were arrested hours after the DU protest against campus violence that drew a huge crowd on Tuesday. The arrests took place after two students, who participated in the protest, said they were attacked by ABVP supporters on their way back, sources said. They were subsequently released on bail and suspended by ABVP. During the day, more than 2,000 placard-holding, slogan-shouting students and teachers turned up for the rally at the North Campus. Left leaders D Raja and Sitaram Yechury joined the walk that was held under tight security. Gurmehar Kaur - the 20-year-old daughter of a soldier, who had been brutally targeted on social media for her Facebook post on ABVP - dropped out of the campaign saying she had taken "all she could".
Here the latest developments in this story:
Prashant Mishra and Vinayak Sharma, both students of DU, have been accused of voluntarily causing hurt, the police said. In their complaint, two students of AISA (All India Students' Association) -- Utkarsh Bharadwaj and Raj Singh -- said they were beaten up and attempts were made to strangle them as they were returning from the protest.
Buoyed by the turnout at today's protest, DU students have decided to hold another march from Mandi House to Parliament on March 4 in protest against the ABVP.
Students, teachers and non-teaching staff from various universities including JNU, Jamia and Ambedkar University, participated in the protest march in the North campus. Besides Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, Swaraj Abhiyan's Yogendra Yadav, AAP's Pankaj Pushkar, and JNU's Kanhaiya Kumar also took part in the march.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said, "They cannot win this with their intellectual skill and want to replace it with violence. Humara nationalism is "we are Indian' and not 'who is a Hindu'?" "This is a collective fight to defend our constitutional rights. We will be raising the issue of DU in Parliament," CPI leader D Raja added.
Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal has issued notice to Facebook, seeking details to identify those who issued rape threats to Gurmehar Kaur. She also asked Facebook to deactivate the accounts from which the threats were issued.
In a series of tweets, Lady Shri Ram College student Gurmehar Kaur appealed to others to join the march and wrote, "To anyone questioning my courage and bravery. I've shown more than enough".
ABVP said it was against the trolling that was being directed at Gurmehar Kaur. "We have written a letter of complaint to the police, and we urge strict and swift action against those who issued the threat," said an ABVP spokesperson.
Last Tuesday, ABVP activists allegedly thrashed students and teachers at Ramjas College for an invite to JNU student Umar Khalid. Mr Khalid was charged with sedition last year over an on-campus event in which anti-national slogans were raised. In clashes between two student groups a day later, more than a dozen were injured.
Yesterday, ABVP activists organised a 'Tiranga' (Tricolour) march against what they called "anti-national" activities by "Left-leaning" students. "Freedom of speech shouldn't be abused to incite anger against Akhand (undivided) Bharat," said Ms Chawri, alleging that her colleagues were attacked in last week's clashes.
The row took a political twist with politicians taking sides. The Left, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi have backed the students' protest. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, who criticised Gurmehar Kaur's posts, stressed that "anti-national" acts cannot be condoned in the name of freedom of expression.
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