A group of Army veterans here will lead a protest march on Sunday against alleged anti-national activities in Jawaharlal Nehru University, which they charged was an “organised attempt” to “balkanise” India.
Addressing a press conference, Maj. Gen. Dhruv C Katoch (Redt) said the rally has been organised by an “apolitical” group ‘People for Nation’ which has “just been” established.
ABVP, the student wing of RSS, has been actively promoting the event and has sent out invites to the media, which Maj. Gen. Katoch downplayed claiming political parties “across the spectrum” have been invited to the event.
“We are completely for unfettered freedom of speech but there should not be debate on a few things. We will match against anti-national slogans raised during the event at the JNU campus. We simply want to initiate a counter-narrative through this,” Maj. Gen. Katoch said.
“This clearly is an organised attempt by disruptive forces, possibly with foreign funding, to attempt to balkanise India,” a statement released by the group said, adding such “anti-India” slogans have found resonance in other universities as well as the Kashmir Valley.
Air Marshall P.K. Roy (Retd) said “anti-national” slogans “demoralise” the soldiers guarding the country’s frontiers. “A few unguided people resort to such activities. As elders, it is our responsibility to guide them,” he said.
The veterans also urged families of martyrs to be present at the “March for unity to save the country” that will begin at Raj Ghat at 10.30 am and culminate with a public meeting at Parliament Street here.
Meanwhile, during a event at the university, JNU professor G. Arunima said that the scope of nationalism is beyond “we the people” and “unity in diversity” and the country will be full of alleged anti-nationals until we start celebrating diversity more than unity.
“Nationalism is not about tricolours, about boasting of we the people and unity in diversity. We need to understand that the scope of the feeling of being a nationalist should be more about celebrating diversity than unity,” she said while addressing students at JNU on nationalism.
Ms Arunima, a faculty at JNU’s Centre for Women Studies, was the fourth in the series of the “nationalism” open-air lectures which are being organised at the varsity in protest against the branding of the university as “anti-national” in wake of an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
“The story of the nation is about differentiated rhythms coming from different parts of the country,” she said.
