A mashal march or torch procession was organised on Thursday by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students inside the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus in support of the the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
At least 500 students from SPPU and other city colleges gathered near the Aniket canteen inside the campus at 5pm. From there, the protesting students started the march towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue and then culminated it at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar statue.
Dayanand Shinde, ABVP president at Savitribai Phule Pune University, said, “Our march was to support the CAA and NRC which has been introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. It is necessary and beneficial for our country and some people are unnecessarily spreading wrong information about these Acts. So through this march, we want to convey our support to the BJP government and will continue to support it through all the ABVP units in various college campuses.”