Thousands of students, writers, artists and people from all walks of life descended on Parliament Street to express their solidarity with JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar who has been charged with sedition. 

Many in the protest rally condemned the ‘illegal detention’ of Kanhaiya and expressed shock at growing ‘fascist tendencies’ of the government. 

"To say that the attack on JNU students and teachers is condemnable is an understatement, because this is not a case of police excess, this is a case of a designed attack meant to produce a silencing effect on dissent. The message that the Central Government has sent out is that if you will oppose us we will beat you into submission," said Yogendra Yadav, founding member of Swaraj Abhiyan. 

Professors, who came out in huge numbers, said they suspected a design to silence dissent. 

"This entire episode is worse than the Emergency. When I was the vice president of DYFI and the emergency was imposed I somehow escaped, but in 2015 the current attack by fascist goons is like 1975 all over again except that it is more savage. In 1975 journalists were censored, never attacked," said Sunit Chopra, Joint Secretary, All India Agriculture Workers Union. 

He added, "I am 74. I came here as I saw this same process during the Emergency and we defeated tyranny in this country. But I feel that I won’t be around when we defeat Fascism. Our students have been beaten up for expressing their views, we also believe that there must be a space for dissent; you may be a sympathiser of some cause and that ideology must be vociferously debated in the university". 

Jibesh, an artist said, "University has to cultivate the minds of students. It is an open space where students have to experiment with ideas and that is how thought grows. The police are entering this space of experiment and are implementing the ruling dispensation’s idea of an ideal education." 

Trying to discern the reason for the violence, Gopinath Ravindran, with the History Department in Jamia, said, "The Central Government wants the country to run on one idea of nationalism, These forces have shoved their own idea of nationalism and history down our throats and this is the beginning of fascism." 

He added, "The current investigation by the intelligence agencies is based on Goebbelsian propaganda, you repeat lies until it becomes the truth. The Reichstag was burned down in Germany and Hitler blamed it on the communists who had nothing to do with the fire and eventually used that to install a Nazi dictatorship, this tendency must be nipped in the bud." 

The protest was a natural evolution of the HRD ministry’s short sighted policies and the belligerent intrusion in the autonomy of universities will further polarise people is what several protestors, including writer Githa Hariharan said. 

"This incident is a continuum of the Rohith Vemula suicide case and the incident at JNU must not be looked in isolation as nothing can be analysed in a vacuum. Last year itself many writers, scientists, academics had protested against the growing intolerance in the country. The short sightedness of the government has resulted in a series of movements and the ruling dispensation thought they could suppress the issue after the Bihar elections. Now there is a sharp polarisation," she said. 

"The ruling political class thought they could attack JNU, isolate it and shove their idea of nationalism down our throats but with this incident every household is having discussions on nationalism and this debate will extend beyond classrooms," she added.