It's 10.30 on a Thursday morning and the road leading to the Faculty of Arts and University Plaza on Delhi University’s North Campus has been barricaded. Scores of policemen dot the lane where hundreds of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protesters are taking their positions for a ‘Save DU March’ against “those raising anti-national slogans”. As more students show up — with orange scarves around their necks and the national flag in their hands — slogans such as, ‘Tum naxalvaad se thodoge, hum rashtravaad se jodenge (What you break with naxalism, we will fix with nationalism)’ fill the air. A few metres from the charged atmosphere of the protest venue, the office of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) is relatively quiet. The single-storey building serves as the headquarters of the four elected office-bearers of the students’ union — the ABVP had swept the DUSU elections in September, winning three positions. This morning, with the three ABVP office-bearers — president Amit Singh Tanwar, vice-president Priyanka Chhawri, and general secretary Ankit Singh Sangwan — out mobilising the crowd for the protest, their cabins are occupied by a few idling ABVP supporters. Next door, the office of joint secretary Mohit Garid of the National Students’ Union of India, the student wing of the Congress party, wears a deserted look. “Bhaiya kaafi din se nahi aaye hain (He hasn’t been coming),” says a student of Satyawati College, in between large mouthfuls of aloo-kulcha that he is sharing with two others, in Garid's cabin. The DUSU office has seen frenzied activity since February 21, when protests over the cancellation of a seminar at Ramjas College turned violent, but today, the action is largely outside. Around 11 am, Varun Chaudhary, 21, a BCom second-year student of Kirori Mal college (KMC), walks into the president’s office and begins to update the ABVP’s Facebook page with photos of the latest protest. Soon, another group of students from the evening batch of Satyawati College enter and a heated discussion ensues. “Nation first hota hai, Communism ke naam par yahan terrorism ho raha hai (The nation is always first, people are indulging in terrorism in the name of communism),” says Apoorv Yadav, 19, a BA Programme student from the college. The others quickly join in. “Deshdroh ke naare lagaye ja rahe hain. Left ka DU mein koi astitva nahi hai (They have been shouting anti-national slogans. The Left has no presence in DU),” says Devyanshu Mishra, 20, a History (Honours) student. “There are so many academicians in DU; why did they have to invite Umar Khalid? They are just attention seekers,” lashes out Deepak Yadav, a third-year Hindi (Honours) student. After venting their ‘anger’, they all crowd around the water dispenser and gulp down several glasses. “It is quite hot outside. and we have been shouting slogans for a long time,” says one of the students. Moments later, 23-year-old Sumit, a post-graduate student of Faculty of Political Science arrives with his friend Vivek Tanwar, 18, a first-year student of the College of Vocational Studies. They are here to discuss the route of the march. “Nearly 7,000-8,000 students are expected to turn up. all from DU. We don’t get outsiders into the campus like the Communists. We will take a round of the entire campus and stop at Ramjas College,” says Sumit, adding, “Phir Ramjas mein thoda halla hoga, thoda pressure dikhayenge (We will make some noise at Ramjas, put some pressure),” says Sumit. On what they hope to achieve with the halla, Sumit responds after some thought. “Protest is useful. Now if some girl from my class sees me protesting, she will be curious and ask me. Then I can tell her about what the Communists have been up to. Eventually, she will understand our cause and be on our side,” explains Sumit, swivelling in the DUSU president’s chair. Just then, Deepak Sharma, a 24-year-old student of Gautam Budh University in Noida barges into the office and slams the door shut. An ‘Om’ tattoo on his neck, his face dripping with sweat, Sharma hands over a bunch of posters to the others. “The march is about to leave, let’s go,” he tells everyone. Around noon, DUSU general secretary Ankit Singh Sangwan, 23, arrives with a small entourage of ABVP supporters. The post-graduate student of Buddhist Studies at the Faculty of Arts is a busy man today. The march has begun and Sangwan is tracking the developments on his phone. After half an hour, Sangwan finally gets a moment to relax in the lobby. So, what do office-bearers do on any given day? “We usually come here by 10 am, after the 8.30 am class. During the admission and exam season, there are lots of students here with their complaints. We solve as many as we can. Then, for two hours, every day, we make the rounds of over 70 DU colleges and interact with the students there. Since assuming office in September last year, I have visited every college at least once,” says Sangwan, before being interrupted by an ABVP member. “I will have to go, something has come up at the march,” he says, leaving the office to a few students of the Zakir Hussain College, who are waiting for a friend. “We went to the march for a while but didn’t like it. Both the SFI and ABVP are doing the same thing. Some of our friends from KMC have gone for the protest. We are waiting for them to return,” says one of them. By 1 pm, both the DUSU office and University Plaza are empty. The streets are littered with abandoned posters and banners. Aarthak Hooda, 20, a third-year BA Programme student, is waiting outside the DUSU office with his friends. “These Communists keep calling us hooligans. We haven’t doctored any video; the proof of their violence is there for everyone to see. See, the fact is that a few people are intolerant towards the government at the Centre and that is why they are resorting to such tactics,” he says. Through the afternoon, no SFI or AISA members are seen at the DUSU office or near the protest venue. By 3 pm, most of the students have left the DUSU office and only two guards remain. “Aaj kal sirf protest ka kaam hota hai yahan (These days only protest activity happens at the office),” says one of the guards. Two 19-year-old Ramjas students from Allahabad arrive at the DUSU office to complain about classes not being held. With the rooms all deserted, they leave dejected. “We had come to DU to prepare for the UPSC exams. Classes haven’t been held for nearly a week. Even newspapers are of no help; there are only reports about the Ramjas controversy,” says the Hindi (Honours) student.
