To counter their opponents who held a series on 'demilitarisation of nationalism' lectures, members of ABVP held a lecture on 'nationalism straight from the battlefield' and also screened the India Pakistan match being played today in Bangladesh.
While the Left-backed group had former Navy Chief Admiral (retd) Lakshminarayan Ramdas and Retired colonel Lakshmeswar Mishra to deliver lectures on 'demilitarisation of nationalism', members of the student wing of BJP organised a parallel series.
Addressing the gathering on the topic "Nationalism: Straight from battlefield" Brigadier (retd) Sharma said, "Pakistan knows that it can't defeat us on battlefield, therefore they are waging a proxy war and trying to benefit from our internal weaknesses to disturb our internal security.
"We are moving forward in every areas, cyber, warship, economy, etc and that is what keeps our neighbour unhappy, more so because we became independent at the same time. And that's why we need to remain alert," he said as he played a video showing the high peaks and battlefields of Siachen and the difficulties the soldiers face there while guarding the border.
Lieutenant General (retd) Malik talked about the two mistakes India had committed according to him.
"The first was to recognize Tibet as the part of China". Tibet was historically our neighbour and China was nowhere far from us but that mistake drew China closer and posed it as our great neighbouring enemy. Another mistake was going to UNO on Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
The parallel events took place on JNU campus which is caught in a row over an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were alleged to be raised.
While the organisation of the programme was objected by ABVP, three students including the union president Kanhaiya Kumar are in custody in a sedition case over the event.
"The incident and the subsequent defence of the event citing 'free speech' by some 'intellectuals' was painful and the words by the ex-servicemen have provided us immense courage to continue our fight against the 'anti-national' elements," said Saurabh Kumar Sharma, Joint Secretary JNUSU and lone ABVP member in the union.
ABVP had also arranged for a live telecast of India Pakistan match at Mahi-Mandvi hostel in the university and titled the event as "JNU for nationalism".
Terming the decision of the enquiry committee an act of
"cowardice, compromise and collusion", ABVP has sought an assurance from the administration that "such anti-national and seditious event shall not take in future".
"The arbitrariness of punishment reveals the buckling of the JNU administration under pressure from students union and teachers association. One of the participants of the event is a daughter of a politician and has not been given any punishment.
"Some of them are the habitual offenders and awarding feather-like punishment is making heroes out of demons," ABVP said.
JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattachayra were arrested on the charge of sedition in February in connection with the controversial event and are out on bail.
While Kanhaiya has been slapped with a penalty of Rs 10,000 on grounds of "indiscipline and misconduct", Umar, Anirban and Kashmiri student Mujeeb Gatoo have been rusticated for varied durations.
