ABVP why so creepy: DU students raise cheeky slogans protesting Ramjas row

Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav also joined the protest march

Cries for 'azaadi' and the 'cheeky Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) why so creepy', on Tuesday reverberated the  Delhi University (DU) campus during an anti-ABVP march joined by over 2,000 students and teachers against "onslaught" on universities and "curb" on dissent.

Students, teachers and non-teaching staff from various universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia and Ambedkar University participated in the protest march.

The march was organised following recent violence at the Ramjas college which saw clashes between ABVP and Left-backed AISA over the cancellation of a seminar invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid following opposition from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh' (RSS') students' wing.

Massive police deployment was in place at the North Campus.

Two AISA members were allegedly attacked by ABVP supporters following which an FIR has been registered by Delhi police.

The protest march which comes a day after ABVP's 'Tiranga March' was also joined by few politicians, including Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, Swaraj Abhiyan's Yogendra Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) Pankaj Pushkar, who discarded the ABVP's "idea of violence for nationalism".

Fearing rerun of last week's violence, massive police deployment was seen on the varsity's North Campus as protesters continued with their march till they reached the Vivekananda statue in the Art's faculty -- the traditional protest site of ABVP.

Buoyed by the turnout at today's protest, DU students have decided to take out another march from Mandi House to Parliament on March 4 in protest against ABVP.

Addressing the protesters, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said, "We will learn our nationalism from Bhagat Singh and not from them whose forefathers never hoisted the national flag at their headquarters. Neither will we tolerate nor will we engage in violence. The protest is not about Left or Right but wrong and right".

Yadav was apparently referring to RSS which till recently did not hoist the tricolour at their Nagpur headquarters.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) 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 (M) leader D Raja said.

JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar and Shehla Rashid also joined the march demanding "non-violence" on campuses even as ABVP members raised "go back Kanhaiya" slogans.

Later in the evening, the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) took out a "mashal rally" against "ABVP's attempts to curb students' freedom of expression and misusing 'nationalism' to further their agenda".

The NSUI, at the same time, condemned the "violent ways" of the Left in handling the situation.