Rahul Gandhi visits JNU, slams Centre

"The most anti-national people are the people who are suppressing the voice of this institution," Gandhi said.

"A youngster expressed himself & Govt says he is anti-national. They don't understand that by crushing you they are making you stronger," the Congress vice president said.

He said: "They are terrified of people raising their voice."

Gandhi was shown black flags by some students in the campus.

They reportedly belong to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Addressing those students, Gandhi said: "People who showed black flag on my face, I feel proud that in my country they have the right to show black flag."

The JNU is currently facing protests and counter protests with the police cracking down on students over the anti-India slogans raised earlier to mark the death anniversary of Parliament Attack convict Afzal Guru on its campus in the national capital.

With tension rising, several former army officers wrote to the varsity that they would return their degrees from JNU if it becomes a hub of anti-national activities while on the other hand various groups, including the Leftists, slammed the government for pushing an RSS-BJP agenda by crushing the students over the incident of slogan-shouting against India, which they called was an aberration.

Ex-servicemen of the 54th NDA course said they find it difficult to be associated with a university which has become a hub of anti-national activity, and would therefore be constrained to return "our prized and well earned degrees to your esteemed institution if such activities are allowed to be conducted inside the University Campus."

Meanwhile, several students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi have been barred from academic activities over the incident of anti-India slogans within the campus in support of Afzal Guru, even as tension ran high on the campus after a students' union leader was arrested over sedition charges and police searched for more student suspects in the slogan shouting.

The arrested student leader is Kanhaiya Kumar, who is the president of the JNU students' union- the left-leaning All India Students Federation (AISF).

In police custody now, he has been charged with sedition. While senior ministers of the ruling BJP have said they would not tolerate anti-India slogans, the AISF said Kanhaiya's arrest is at the instigation of the BJP student wing ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parisad).

"The arrest in the JNU is threat to the future of democracy in the country," said AISF, holding that the present government has made its face clear by the action.

Image: INC website