Thousands of students from universities and colleges across Delhi staged a massive protest on Thursday to condemn the arrest of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges.
Demanding immediate release of Kumar, who was arrested on February 12 for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans on the campus, around 8,000 students, teachers and activists from various universities took out a protest march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar.
While the protestors were gathering at Mandi House, several students and activists alleged that Twitter and Facebook have been purposely throttled when the social media platforms went down at around 2.30 pm and it only resumed almost after about an hour.
The students from Delhi University, JNU and Jamia Milia Islamia took part in the protest, shouting slogans like “Janwad pe hamla band karo” (End attacks on democracy), “Kanhaiya ko Azad karo” and raised their demand.
Hours before a protest march by its students, the JNU V-C appealed to them to “reconsider” on account of their safety.
Several teachers, lawyers, activists, theatre artists and journalists also took part in the protest to express their solidarity with the agitating students. A few political leaders including D Raja, Brinda Karat, D P Tripathi and Yogendra Yadav of Swaraj Abhiyan also joined the protest march and demanded Kumar’s release.
While expressing his disappointment on the current row in JNU, D P Tripathi, a former JNUSU office bearer said: “Kanhaiya’s arrest in the charge of sedition is unfortunate and he must be released immediately.”
The protestors were outraged by televised scenes of Kanhaiya Kumar, the student union president of Jawaharlal Nehru University, being kicked and punched while he was being escorted for a court hearing on Wednesday.