Ex-servicemen hit the streets against anti-national activities

Led by a group of ex-servicemen, thousands of people on Sunday hit the streets against “anti- national” activities in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – a march that is believed to have been backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who are under Opposition fire over the ongoing row at the premier university.

The rally from Raj Ghat to Jantar Mantar saw marchers fervently waving the Tricolour and raising slogans such as ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ with some of them saying that nothing is above ‘nationalism’.

“Massive rally in Delhi led by ex-Generals against incidents at JNU in Delhi. Tens of thousands joined spontaneously,” BJP general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

The BJP and the RSS are undertsood to have mobilised crowd for the rally. “Lakhs of citizens including families of former soldiers at #MarchForUnity proved that we'd stand together for respect of motherland. JaiHind!” BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted.

BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also hit back at the Opposition parties over their charge that the Narendra Modi government was misusing the sedition law as he quoted official data to claim that maximum arrests under it were made in Bihar, where JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance is in power and which has been ruled by Nitish Kumar for over 10 years.

Anti-India activities have long taken place on campuses but the Bharatiya Janata Party government will not tolerate it, he said, adding, “Those who engage in it will find themselves behind bars.”