ABVP protest in Delhi. (TOI photo)

NEW DELHI: ABVP’s ‘Save DU ’ protest saw heavy sloganeering that ranged from provocative to outright offensive. The protesters, though, just like on March 1, raised their own ‘azadi’ slogans.

One of the most commonly heard and oft-repeated slogans was also quite provocative: “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaron saalon ko.” People were shouting it on a loop, interspersed with the ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ chants.

As part of their “nationalist” agenda, the participants warned the Left to abide by their definition of patriotism or leave the country with the slogan “agar desh mein rehna hai, Vande Mataram kehna hai”.

The participants also gave a “patriotic” twist to the ‘azadi’ slogans used by the Left organisations. A placard read, “Fauj ko balathkari goonde kehne waalon se azadi (freedom from those calling Armymen rapist goons).”

DUSU president Amit Tanwar also chided those who “abuse” soldiers. But things were taken a bit too far with some posters. One such poster that some students objected to read, “DU mein Urdu banner lekar naara lagane waalon se azadi (freedom from those raising slogans with Urdu banners in DU).” A student said, “This is an attempt to communalise the atmosphere.” Then there were speeches by members of the Right-wing student faction, which were interspersed with cries of even ‘Har Har Mahadev’. These slogans and chants echoed through the campus all through the day.

The participants also dragged in the February 9, 2016 protest in JNU and slammed those alleged supporters of Afzal Guru. They shouted, “Jo Afzal ke yaar hai, desh ke gaddar hai (the friends of Afzal are traitors to the nation).”

The Left-backed students’ group, AISA , objected to certain posters and placards and called them “defamatory” towards them.

“The hoardings are maligning the image of one particular organisation without any legal ground,” said an AISA representative alluding to the posters and speeches made during the course of the event where AISA was also called a “rapist organisation”.

