City students pledge their support to Anna

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Neither an unconfirmed venue, the inclement weather or warnings issued by the police could deter students from across the city who were firm on lending support to Anna Hazare’s protest rally on Tuesday. So, while some students from nearby North Campus congregated at their respective colleges and then headed to the Civil Lines protest site, groups of protestors kept pouring out of the Vishwavidyalaya Metro station even as the heavens opened.
Students holding the Tricolour, banners and placards formed a major chunk of the protesting mass. Prashant T, an engineering student of MDU, informed, “We had congregated at 10am at Civil Lines for the protest. Roads leading to the site had been barricaded and traffic had been stopped from entering the area but even then the place was full of school kids and students from North Campus who were protesting peacefully. To disperse the crowd, police had buses on standby and from time to time they filled a couple of buses with protestors and sent them off to Chhatrasal Stadium, but more people kept joining.”
Rishi, who was leading a group of protestors at Civil Lines, said students from all across the campus had joined in. “After the march began (at Civil Lines), students from the nearby colleges kept pouring in. And by the time we reached Chhatrasal Stadium our numbers swelled to around 5,000. Protestors singing hymns, raising slogans headed towards the stadium where police had kept thousands of other protestors. But there is no more room inside the stadium so we are all protesting on the roads.”
Students like Abhay Anand who had also gone to Raj Ghat on Monday, said youngsters were proactively inviting their friends through SMS and Facebook. “Even at Raj Ghat there was no prior announcement of Anna’s visit, but the news spread like wildfire and within an hour or so 3000-odd converged to see Anna. I too had SMSed my friends asking them to join,” said Abhay.
Others like Trishala Shandilya, a student of JMC, used Facebook to good effect. “Without bunking college we will do this.. we will be in the constitution and follow the law but still we support anna’s cause on a huge scale. more than 1000’s will keep a fast from tomorrow to 10 days with their respective colleges and will boycott the things which are necessary,” read Trishala’s wall post.
The participation from some of the North Campus colleges was staggering, says Anku Sharma, a final year LLB student of DU’s Faculty of Law. “500 students from our faculty are participating and alongwith us another 1,500-odd-members from colleges like Ramjas, Hindu, Daulat Ram and SRCC have joined. We are all in favour of Anna’s suggestions and oppose the multiplicity of institutions and fear the repercussions if a weaker law is passed. 200 students from the Faculty of Law have decided to support the protest till its completion and are prepared for dharnas and arrests on the way.”
“All those who gathered were aware of a police crackdown but there was no sign of fear — they were all protesting cheerfully,” informed Abhay.