NEW
DELHI—After facing criticism from Sikhs internationally, Kanhaiya Kumar
has stated that his comments were taken out of context in an article
published by Outlook India and Huffington Post India on March 28.
Outlook India quoted Kumar as saying, “There is difference between
emergency and fascism. During emergency, goons of only one party were
engaged into goondaism, in this (fascism) entire state machinery is
resorting to goondaism. There is difference between riots of 2002 and
1984 Sikh Pogroms.”
By drawing contrasts between 2002 and 1984, Kanhaiya Kumar had
allegedly stated that the mass killings of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002
were different than the killings of Sikhs in 1984.
In a statement shared earlier today, Kanhaiya Kumar stated –
I have been misinterpreted and misrepresented yet again.
There isn’t an iota of doubt that Emergency represents one of the
darkest periods of Indian democracy. My organization AISF strongly
opposed and fought against the state repression during Emergency. Both
1984 and 2002 were indeed state led pogroms for which justice is still
awaited. The current central government is relentlessly carrying forward
its fascist agenda using state power, as visible in the recent
authoritarian actions against students and all voices of dissent across
the country. What we now witness is unprecedented – a form of undeclared
emergency.
Kanhaiya Kumar faced criticism over social media earlier. Ajmer
Singh Randhawa, Sikh activist and author from New Delhi stated,
“Kanhaiyya wasn’t born before 1984, his views are only on hearsay, away
from facts. Rajiv Gandhi planned it, than successfully organized [the
massacres].”
Manpreet Sodhi, a renowned author stated, “No, Kanhaiya Kumar, you
got it wrong there. Both Gujarat 2002 and the anti-Sikh Pogroms 1984
were pogroms carried out with active support of the government in power.
Let’s not whitewash the Congress regime in order to show the current
BJP regime in bad light by contrast. The hands of both are bloodied.”
By Saswat Pattanayak
Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest was unfortunate and so his release on bail is
a great relief. But beyond that, to seek revolutionary potential in the
hoopla surrounding it, is to miss the point entirely. Competing for
authentic nationalism to legitimize an oppressive power structure is not
what the Communists do. Quite the opposite.
Sudden excitement and pronouncement of “victory” at the news of a
judge granting Kumar’s bail is a betrayal of Kashmiri peoples’
struggles, given the specific contexts of denial of antinationalism on
part of these students. It is as if the left-liberals of India were
hoping and praying and wishing that the judge found nothing in those
tapes that were anti-India. To celebrate Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru and
then to hope that nothing is spoken against Indian state is a mockery
of social justice ethos. Outside of the campus too, no politician in the
parliament condemned capital punishment and everyone hailed the court’s
verdicts as eternally just. Their voice in unison across party line was
“We will not spare whoever raised anti-India slogans, but Kanhaiya
Kumar is innocent.” This eagerness to embrace court verdict to be tagged
a nationalist should have appeared disappointing to comrade Kumar
himself.
But what is disappointing is that the foremost student leader of the
most progressive campus in the country, who personally was assaulted
within court premises of Delhi by a group lawyers who received bails
much before he did, holds a rally where he time and again reposes faith
in the judiciary system and in the dominant interpretations of
constitutional framework. Kumar says he does not want Azaadi from India,
but within India. Not from India, but from those who are exploiting
India. How did he manage to so brilliantly make such distinctions is a
puzzle. India as a nationalist construct belongs to the ruling class
exploiters – it does not remain in vacuum. One single political party is
not responsible for giving shape to India as a monstrously exploitative
machinery that continues to “shine” at the expense of the teeming
millions who despair. And if that is so, then the party to hoodwink
people into believing in a public relations campaign for India is not
the BJP, considering how comparatively new entrant it is into this
oppressive domain. Comrade Kumar failed to note how this India came into
being – on the murders and suicides of countless people who continue to
remain in a state of destitute thanks to the capacity of Indian state
to overlook their existence, not due to a few right-wing politicians
alone. Instead he continued to shower praises and salutes on men in
uniform at the borders while classifying them as working class. Of
course they are the working class, but the ideology they safeguard is
surely within the purview of a communist as well to critique – an
option, that was left deliberately unexplored inside JNU that night,
because of Kumar’s refusal to speak of Kashmiri crisis, independent of
India’s crises.
If JNU protest is not about Indian state, then what was precisely the
reason for organizing student assemblies on the day to commemorate
Afzal Guru? Is the AISF (and CPI by extension) not aware of the
collective aspirations of Kashmiri peoples? Aspirations of North-East
that remain subjugated militarily? At what point the “within India” and
“from India” became distinctly different notions in a freedom struggle?
Comrade Kumar knows quite well that condemning India or any other
country is not about wishing ill for people who live in those
territories. It is about demanding the gigantic state machinery to stop
oppressions, executions, and political prosecutions of people who reside
within the geographic territories that are politically demarcated to be
India’s. Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest and release are within the ambit of
India’s judiciary, but what about the dissenting voices from Kashmir and
Nagaland and Manipur that demand fellow Indians to reject their
country’s colonial overtures precisely because the same judiciary fails
them?
Kanhaiya Kumar sees Modi as his rival, and not enemy – and that is
totally fine. That is about political aspirations of student leaders.
Let us not mistake that for some communistic engagement with issues of
colonialism and imperialism. The struggle for Kashmiri people is not a
struggle to be recognized as “nationalists within India”. Indeed, their
struggle is defined “without”. And that is the fundamental difference
which the mainstream left parties in India have failed to grasp to this
day. Sadly, JNU leads this delusion from the front.
Quite evidently, the left parties do not understand or even bother to
understand the slogans associated with Kashmiri liberation movement.
The official communist parties that claim to represent the oppressed
working class and the marginalized, unfortunately take the same
imperialist high ground of ultra nationalism when it comes to Kashmir.
When it is Palestine, the leftists in India are all about anti-Israel
propaganda, but when it comes to Kashmir, they hide under the umbrage of
constitutional frameworks and pronounce great faith in their state
judiciary, and in case of Kanhaiya Kumar, they take pretense of a
student mobilization against forces that want to disintegrate India. No
disintegration of India – is this the new communist mantra?
But of course, the Indian leftists also have faith in the judiciary
that allows Modi to remain PM while his henchmen Kodnani and Bajrangi
get bails. What about the police officer who wins gallantry medals from
the Constitutional Head of the country after he tortures Soni Sori with
stones? There are thousands more reasons for Indians not to get all
worked up about becoming nationalists. And therefore, for progressive
folks, it is clearly not sufficient to just cite injustices and sing
“humein chahiye azaadi” slogans from this and from that, in order to
prove political correctness, if at the same time, we refuse to wear the
badge of being antinationals with utmost honor.
First of all the judicial pronouncements on JNU are not worthy of
celebrations. They are ultranationalist verdicts in themselves in so
many ways. Secondly, so what if Arnab Goswami was telling the truth that
indeed there were tapes with anti-India slogans? So fuckin what? A
country works either for the people or it works against the people. And
the Indian reality is that a significant population remains under the
burden of Indian militarist state and to say “Down Down India” is to say
“Down with Indian colonialism”, and that condemnation of Indian state
is only a right thing that decent people should do anyway. If not, then
why shy away from “Bharat Maata Ki Jai” slogans? Why fight with ABVP at
all, if we feel ashamed to be “antinationals”? Or is it that we just
want to compete with the Savarkarites in the guise of being Marxists?
Are we to simply forget AFSPA, if sedition charges are somehow
dropped against all JNU students? Is this what it is all about? People
have compared Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech with Nehru’s midnight hour speech,
as indicative of a second freedom struggle in India. If it is indeed a
freedom struggle, then it is a freedom struggle from what, exactly?
Nowhere from Comrade Kumar’s speech did it appear that the freedom
struggle was from the Indian state ably represented by its ruling class.
Appropriating Rohith Vemula who is no more is gross and sick. Did
Rohith die because he could not fight Modi? Or because he could not
fight the Indian state? Do we not know the difference? And if freedom
struggle should be from Indian state, then who are we to determine the
fate of Kashmir vis-a-vis indestructibility of the great Indian
republic? Then why all the pretense about freedom struggle? Freedom from
rising costs of petrol, maybe, but making slogans about freedom from
capitalism, imperialism also entail the need to be inclusive of the most
marginalized. And the most marginalized population in India do not
dwell inside JNU campus, and the most marginalized residents do not see
in Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi their rivals, but in them they see
their class enemies. Comrade Kumar surely knew this.
Being a student leader of AISF, if Comrade Kumar rivals PM Modi while
looking straight at the cameras, it is his privilege if not arrogance
that reveals itself. There is something macho about it too which I find
uncomfortable. Sure Burkha Dutt of Kargil fame is all impressed, since
Comrade Kumar’s speech sounded oh so nationalist. But misappropriating
the “Azaadi” slogans from Kashmiri freedom fighters, using images of
their martyrs on special occasions and then when time comes to
articulate a political position, bestowing all glory upon the
motherland’s judges, police dudes and parliamentary party politics and
sending all sympathy waves to D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Rahul Gandhi and
Arvind Kejriwal? This is parliamentary politics at best. Not
revolutionary student politics which recognize no boundaries and
nationalist flags when it comes to fighting for justice.
Sure, ABVP got a beating which it deserved. But that could have been
done without unnecessary glorification of JNU campus while using as
ideological pawns, some of the most marginalized people militarily
subjugated “within” the Indian territory crying freedom “from” Indian
state excesses, who do not have any access to top constitutional lawyers
to repose their faith in state judiciary and holy parliamentary books.
Azaadi from colonialism, Azaadi from militarism, Azaadi from
nationalism, Azaadi from draconic laws, Azaadi from Indian annexations –
that is what this freedom struggle is supposed to be about. Condemning
anti-people laws passed in the parliament and in the courts of India
which have nurtured the Indian state itself. Azaadi from India indeed,
because for revolutionaries, it is always people above the nations.
Kanhaiya Kumar was
arrested for sedition a week ago and has now been sent to Tihar jail
till March 2nd, had told the Supreme Court that he did not feel safe
enough to go to the High Court. Kanhaiya is being represented by senior
lawyer Raju Ramachandran, said that in the Patiala House Court, violence
broke out and the student was attacked by lawyers. “Lawyers of both
courts are protesting against Kanhaiya,” Ramachandran said. The Supreme
Court, however, declined to take up the petition.
Calling it an “extraordinary case in prevailing circumstances,” the
court said, “People should not think only Supreme Court is capable of
providing security and not the other courts.” The student from
Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested a week ago for ALLEGEDLY making
anti-national statement at an event on February 9th in support of
terrorist Afzal Guru, where anti-India slogans were raised.
In his bail petition to the Supreme Court, Mr Kumar had also cited a
perceived threat to his life in the prison where he fears he might be
attacked by co-prisoners. The student leader was beaten on Wednesday by a
group of lawyers while he was being taken into Patiala House court for
his hearing. He was also slapped while he was waiting for the hearing.
Read more at: http://www.politicalkeeda.com/setback-for-kanhaiya-kumar-jnu-row/
Kanhaiya Kumar was
arrested for sedition a week ago and has now been sent to Tihar jail
till March 2nd, had told the Supreme Court that he did not feel safe
enough to go to the High Court. Kanhaiya is being represented by senior
lawyer Raju Ramachandran, said that in the Patiala House Court, violence
broke out and the student was attacked by lawyers. “Lawyers of both
courts are protesting against Kanhaiya,” Ramachandran said. The Supreme
Court, however, declined to take up the petition.
Calling it an “extraordinary case in prevailing circumstances,” the
court said, “People should not think only Supreme Court is capable of
providing security and not the other courts.” The student from
Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested a week ago for ALLEGEDLY making
anti-national statement at an event on February 9th in support of
terrorist Afzal Guru, where anti-India slogans were raised.
In his bail petition to the Supreme Court, Mr Kumar had also cited a
perceived threat to his life in the prison where he fears he might be
attacked by co-prisoners. The student leader was beaten on Wednesday by a
group of lawyers while he was being taken into Patiala House court for
his hearing. He was also slapped while he was waiting for the hearing.
Read more at: http://www.politicalkeeda.com/setback-for-kanhaiya-kumar-jnu-row/
Setback for Kanhaiya
Kumar: JNU Row
Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested for sedition a week ago and has now been
sent to Tihar jail till March 2nd, had told the Supreme Court that he
did not feel safe enough to go to the High Court. Kanhaiya is being
represented by senior lawyer Raju Ramachandran, said that in the Patiala
House Court, violence broke out and the student was attacked by
lawyers. “Lawyers of both courts are protesting against Kanhaiya,”
Ramachandran said. The Supreme Court, however, declined to take up the
petition.
Calling it an “extraordinary case in prevailing circumstances,” the
court said, “People should not think only Supreme Court is capable of
providing security and not the other courts.” The student from
Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested a week ago for ALLEGEDLY making
anti-national statement at an event on February 9th in support of
terrorist Afzal Guru, where anti-India slogans were raised.
In his bail petition to the Supreme Court, Mr Kumar had also cited a
perceived threat to his life in the prison where he fears he might be
attacked by co-prisoners. The student leader was beaten on Wednesday by a
group of lawyers while he was being taken into Patiala House court for
his hearing. He was also slapped while he was waiting for the hearing.
The lawyers had defined the Supreme Court’s orders banning protests and
barged into the complex before the hearing. They also assaulted
reporters, accusing them of being “anti-national.” The Supreme Court
sent five lawyers to assess the riot. That group, which includes Rajeev
Dhawan and Kapil Sibal, told the top court that there was “an atmosphere
of fear and terrorising.” The senior lawyers who met Kanhaiya said, he
appeared “terrorised.” They also said they were abused relentlessly on
their visit and that pieces of flower pots and stones were hurled at
them.
Read more at: http://www.politicalkeeda.com/setback-for-kanhaiya-kumar-jnu-row/
Kanhaiya Kumar was
arrested for sedition a week ago and has now been sent to Tihar jail
till March 2nd, had told the Supreme Court that he did not feel safe
enough to go to the High Court. Kanhaiya is being represented by senior
lawyer Raju Ramachandran, said that in the Patiala House Court, violence
broke out and the student was attacked by lawyers. “Lawyers of both
courts are protesting against Kanhaiya,” Ramachandran said. The Supreme
Court, however, declined to take up the petition.
Calling it an “extraordinary case in prevailing circumstances,” the
court said, “People should not think only Supreme Court is capable of
providing security and not the other courts.” The student from
Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested a week ago for ALLEGEDLY making
anti-national statement at an event on February 9th in support of
terrorist Afzal Guru, where anti-India slogans were raised.
In his bail petition to the Supreme Court, Mr Kumar had also cited a
perceived threat to his life in the prison where he fears he might be
attacked by co-prisoners. The student leader was beaten on Wednesday by a
group of lawyers while he was being taken into Patiala House court for
his hearing. He was also slapped while he was waiting for the hearing.
Read more at: http://www.politicalkeeda.com/setback-for-kanhaiya-kumar-jnu-row/
Kanhaiya Kumar was
arrested for sedition a week ago and has now been sent to Tihar jail
till March 2nd, had told the Supreme Court that he did not feel safe
enough to go to the High Court. Kanhaiya is being represented by senior
lawyer Raju Ramachandran, said that in the Patiala House Court, violence
broke out and the student was attacked by lawyers. “Lawyers of both
courts are protesting against Kanhaiya,” Ramachandran said. The Supreme
Court, however, declined to take up the petition.
Calling it an “extraordinary case in prevailing circumstances,” the
court said, “People should not think only Supreme Court is capable of
providing security and not the other courts.” The student from
Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested a week ago for ALLEGEDLY making
anti-national statement at an event on February 9th in support of
terrorist Afzal Guru, where anti-India slogans were raised.
In his bail petition to the Supreme Court, Mr Kumar had also cited a
perceived threat to his life in the prison where he fears he might be
attacked by co-prisoners. The student leader was beaten on Wednesday by a
group of lawyers while he was being taken into Patiala House court for
his hearing. He was also slapped while he was waiting for the hearing.
Read more at: http://www.politicalkeeda.com/setback-for-kanhaiya-kumar-jnu-row/
Ever since his release from jail
after he got bail from Delhi High Court, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar has given nearly 70 interviews
to different national and international media outlets.
At ScoopWhoop, we decided to do it differently.
We
invited questions from our readers that they wanted to ask the
student-leader-turned-youth icon Kanhaiya Kumar. From his idea of
student activism to his alleged misbehavior with a girl in JNU last
year, Kanhaiya spoke on a number of issues.
Here's how he replied to your questions
Did you always want to become a student politician or were you inspired to become one? (Asked by Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor)
You
can say that I formally joined politics when I was in college. Even
though I didn't understand politics at that time, but I knew it was
politics.
I used to fight for issues like absence of
teachers from the class, raising questions on harassment of girls by
some blue-eyed boys and asking the principal about the lack of books in
the library.
Do you think what
you are doing is still student activism or you think you have reached a
level where you talk on national issues?
I
think this is student activism. I have an example of Bhagat Singh
before me who rose against British rule while being a student. His
resistance became an international issue at the time. Issues are always
connected.
JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar during an interaction with ScoopWhoop | Source: ScoopWhoop/Sumit Tharan
Only youth and students in the
country have the strength to understand these issues and raise their
voices against it. And the raising of this voice is purely student
activism, irrespective of whether an issue is of a national or an
international one.
When you returned to the campus after you got bail you gave an electrifying speech. How do you do that?
JNU completes a building process of an individual. When you enter JNU, you get an introduction to the whole world.
JNUSU
President Kanhaiya Kumar addresses students after reaching at the JNU
campus upon his release on bail, in New Delhi | Source: PTI
This is the only campus where you get to
know about different international cultures, languages, religions,
identities, discourses and ideas. That widens an individual's thinking.
After that you assimilate content and then everybody presents it in
his/her own way.
But how do you practice? Isn't it rare to speak so articulately for 55 minutes?
JNU
witnesses protests every other day. I think it's the speciality of JNU,
rather than mine. Or you can say with the kind of backgrounds, families
and society we come from, it's not a mere fashion or political tactic
for us to speak on poverty and farmers.
I
am not a politician's son, whose speeches a poor farmer would not
relate with. I come from such a family that when I talk about the
soldiers of this country, poverty and farmers, people relate to me
because that is my reality.
When are you completing your Phd? (Asked by Nirahua Dehati)
I have some two to one-and-a-half-year period left in my research. I have to submit my thesis in 2018.
What are your views on Congress & BJP? (Asked by Nitin Jajoo)
The
issues on which Modi was elected to power, Congress was handling them
better than BJP. It was functioning as a welfare state. But this does
not mean that speaking in favour of the Congress makes me a Congress
supporter, or vice versa.
In a
certain sense you are talking about a revolution in terms of how our
thoughts need to be different. Do you think you can say the same thing
if you join a political party? (Asked by Richard Anderson)
I
am a student that's why I raise students' questions. When I'll become a
teacher, I'll raise the questions of teachers. And when I become a
politician, then I'll raise questions of the entire society. It's a
question of fixing responsibility. Currently, I am not a member of any
political outfit, which means my responsibility hasn't been fixed yet.
Jawaharlal
Nehru University Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar (2nd from
right) with former JNUSU Presidents at JNU campus in New Delhi | Source:
PTI
Modiji's vision is not to work for 125
crore people of this country. If that would have been the vision he
wouldn't have been talking of Hindu Rashtra.
So what do you think is Modi's vision?
Modiji's
vision is actually a vision of RSS. And RSS's vision is originally the
vision of Hitler's Germany. What was the vision of Hitler's Germany? It
was one nation, one party and one leader.
We
need to criticize this. This criticism is not due to some personal
animosity with Modi. Modi is the Prime Minister of the country and I am
asking him this question as a student.
What kind of politician is Modi? Is he a good politician?
What
I am saying is that if Modi would have been addressing all those issues
on which he was elected, I wouldn't be protesting against him.
If he would've deposited Rs 15 lakh in my account, I would have been shouting in his support. If daal was priced at Rs 20 per kilo, again I would have been shouting in support of him.
They
failed to deliver what they promised to do. This is why we are opposing
him. After knowing all of this, if anyone considers him a good Prime
Minister then that person is more a Modi bhakt than a citizen of this country.
How do you perceive Rahul Gandhi?
For
us, at this time, what matters is the serious threat for JNU. You can
see how attempts are being made at character assassination and also how
anti-women these attempts are.
Cards
with various messages hanging by a rope as students agitate for the
release of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and other students charged
with sedition, on Jawahar Lal Nehru University campus in New Delhi |
Source: PTI
There's no need to think of Rahul Gandhi at this time.
Do you think India is moving backwards with these kinds of thoughts?
People
say the rule of injustice doesn't stay for long, but for some time the
pace of society's growth stops. It does go backwards for some time.
Education has given us a chance to come out of this.
Why are they still calling you anti-national?
In law, the word of anti-national doesn't even exist.
In Hindi, word sedition means Raajdroh and what will be the opposite of that? Raj Bhakt (Nationalist). If they become Raj Bhakt then they won't gain in the elections. That's why they used the word Desh ka Gadaar (Traitor). Only then they can prove themselves as Desh Bhakt.
You are 29 and still doing Phd?
It's
not Bhagat Singh's time, when we were a colony. I want to say to all
those people who present this question, that this is not Bhagat Singh's
time that I would be executed at the age of 23.
The
fact that people have taken up a job at 22 doesn't mean I would also
take up one. Doing a Phd is also work. Research is also a job, this is
why we are given stipend.
Supporters
of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) walk in front of a banner
featuring Kanhaiya Kumar, a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student
union leader accused of sedition, during a protest demanding the release
of Kumar in Kolkata, India | Source: Reuters
Everybody has a separate job and role in a
society. You can't ask Lata Mangeshkar to play cricket and ask Sachin
Tendulkar to sing.
Those
who think the subsidy money is getting wasted, shouldn't rely on the
parameters of Modi Bhakti but on the results and system of National
Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). And that NAAC has defined
JNU as the best university. This means the subsidy money is being spent
at right place.
And where is it being
wrongly used? It's being wrongly used with people like Vijay Mallya, who
took the country's money and went to London.
What's the craziest theory you have heard about yourself during the current crisis?
First
was my twisted statements against army, according to which I had said
the Indian Army is a rapist. I am saying that I respect the army and
obviously a citizen of this country will never respect a rapist. I
hadn't even used the word army in my speech. I used the word security
personnel. There are different kinds of people in security.
Today,
there's another level of character assassination against me. It's being
said I had misbehaved with a girl. I am saying how can one misbehave
with a girl in JNU?
But weren't you fined Rs 3000 for that?
There
is a different context to that and it has been presented in a very
different manner. There are lot of questions about that like: there was
no hearing, no inquiry, there's also a question on the letter also.
Five people you are inspired by?
My Mother, Ambedkar, Gandhi, Nehru, PC Joshi, Jyotirao Phule & Bhagat Singh.
JNUSU
President Kanhaiya Kumar addresses students after reaching at the JNU
campus upon his release on bail, in New Delhi on Thursday | Source: PTI
Internationally, Che and Gorky. And some few more people have started to inspire me during the last few weeks.
Did you get one of those 'Mera Yaar Kanhaiya' T-Shirts?
No I didn't. I am still waiting. For whom will I wear that?
Maybe for Umar and Anirban?
Yes, but the slogan will be something else. Like some people said when they heard that I got bail they started shouting "Jail ka taala toota hai, comrade Kanhaiya chootha hai", then they started "Kanhaiya to jhaanki hai, Umar Anirban baaki hai".
The kind of outpouring against your arrest was unmatched. Why don't we see it in the case of Umar and Anirban?
This
is the government's conspiracy. I have been saying it repeatedly. They
know students will return to normal after sometime. So they smartly use
delay tactics. Remember the kind of outpouring in the case of FTII
initially? It was huge but after six months, they brought back Gajendra
Chauhan.
JNU's
student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar may have claimed multiple times
that he's not keen on a career in politics, but his meeting with Lalu
Prasad Yadav and other political leaders in his hometown in Bihar has
got many saying that Kumar's just making an empty claim.
Kanhaiya visited
his hometown Bihar for the first time since being released from jail,
and had the red carpet laid out for him by the Nitish Kumar government.
He was escorted by policemen at Patna airport and moved with a convoy in
the state capital.
'Shame': BJP on Kanhaiya's grand Bihar welcome: Kanhaiya was escorted by policemen from the Patna airport on ... http://bit.ly/1YXXWoT
JNU's
student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar may have claimed multiple times
that he's not keen on a career in politics, but his meeting with Lalu
Prasad Yadav and other political leaders in his hometown in Bihar has
got many saying that Kumar's just making an empty claim.
Kanhaiya visited
his hometown Bihar for the first time since being released from jail,
and had the red carpet laid out for him by the Nitish Kumar government.
He was escorted by policemen at Patna airport and moved with a convoy in
the state capital.
On Saturday, the research scholar
met both Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav
- both staunch opponents of Narendra Modi and the BJP. Given how
Kanhaiya has been relentlessly criticising Modi, the Sangh Parivar and
the BJP, it wasn't surprising that the leaders welcomed him like a hero.
But, it is this one image that is ultimately defining his Bihar visit.
The image
is cropped, but it appears that Kanhaiya is touching the feet of former
Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose political image is marred by his
conviction in the Rs 23 billion fodder scam.
Not surprisingly, the image riled up many on Twitter who aren't fans of Kanhaiya's political sloganeering.
A bank of bougainvillea is in full bloom, the air is crisp and pleasant, and parrots squawk noisily in a clear, blue sky.
On
a rocky outcrop ringed by the flaming red and orange vines and
red-brick living quarters for teachers, Kanhaiya Kumar, India's most
loved and loathed student, looks remarkably composed.
He is the president of the students' union, is affiliated to the Communist Party of India, and considers himself a Marxist.
It's been barely a month since the 28-year-old PhD student of African studies was picked up by the police and charged with sedition for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans at a meeting on the campus. (Two other students remain in custody.)
The
meeting had been organised against the 2013 execution of a Kashmiri
separatist convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament attack.
Mr Kumar's views have been divisive in India with some calling him "anti-nationalist".
It's barely a week since he was freed on bail, and gave an impassioned speech on the campus that went viral.
Some
however have expressed discomfort with his political energies, with one
JNU professor saying that his speeches could be inflammatory.
Mr
Kumar, according to political scientist Suhas Palshikar, is the latest
student to be associated with the "simmering unrest" on Indian campuses,
a "result of the BJP's newfound ideological aggression and political
arrogance". Many others are calling him a student icon.
'Met his match'
Over the last month, Mr Kumar has inspired a hefty Wikipedia entry, paeans to a rising leader (Red Star over India, exulted The Telegraph), even listicles. His friends reckon he has already given 50 media interviews in five days.
A little-known fringe group leader with a paltry bank balance announced a bounty on
his head, his Facebook account has been hacked, his mobile phone
seized by the police. Some people have even begun raising money in his
name.
Mr Kumar's many admirers believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "met his match" in the feisty student.
But like the prime minister, the student leader is, at once, a controversial and polarising figure.
Makarand
Paranjape, a JNU professor of English, says he is uncomfortable with
some of Mr Kumar's inflammatory rhetoric and the arrogance in his
speeches.
"This is a strange kind of polemic where there is no
acknowledgment of what the system is giving, there is no appreciation,
only endless abuse," Prof Paranjape told Firstpost.
His critics have called him an anarchist, a misguided idealist, a sloganeering "Johnny-come-lately who is upstaging stalwarts",
and given him gratuitous advice on how he should stop politicking and
begin earning for his poor parents. A former woman student has raised objections to his conduct in public.
"I
get up in the morning, do some work for the union, and then do
interviews all day. They say after TV channels and newspapers, the
magazines will come," he says.
Mr Kumar appears to be basking in
the warm glow of his meteoric media rise. When he's not handling the
scrum, there's time for some light banter with friends. When a friend
teases him about being an attention seeker, he quips, "Only (Prime
Minister Modi) suffers from an attention seeker's syndrome." Some hearty
laughter follows.
He's carrying some handwritten papers of
Brecht's poetry, translated in Hindi - "The book is out of print, so we
are sharing these handwritten poems."
Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Kanhaiya Kumar was charged with sedition for
allegedly shouting anti-India slogans at a meeting on the campus
Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Mr Kumar is now the university's most famous student
Many believe that in a nation desperate for heroes
and soaked in a febrile media culture adept at myth making and instant
vilification, Mr Kumar has been thrust into an uncomfortable spotlight
by a fumbling and offensive government and a clutch of hostile news
channels. So does he feel like an accidental hero?
"I am no hero,"
says Mr Kumar. "Thank the people who made me a hero, including a
section of the media who work for a particular party. The real heroes
and heroines are those who are fighting for democracy against an
authoritarian regime."
He does not suffer from any false modesty.
He hasn't become famous overnight, he says. It has been a "gradual
process" since he first arrived at JNU from his village in Begusarai in
Bihar. (His father, a small farmer, cannot work any longer as he is
paralysed after a stroke and his mother is a government childcare centre
worker.)
'Culture shock'
"I
had a culture shock when I arrived in JNU. There are students from 145
countries here. My horizons have grown. Last year, I was voted as the
leader of the students' union," he says.
Students say his rousing performance in November's presidential debate
- a town-hall discussion, a day before the union election - made him a
name on the campus. A Kumar speech, delivered in fluent Hindi, is
usually an animated performance of oratory, rhetoric, wit and
gladiatorial mojo.
"The number of Facebook friends jumped from
2,000 to 5,000. A thousand people followed me. There is now pressure
from people when you are not updating your status. Four hundred people
like your status now, up from 20 before," he says.
Image copyrightbiharphoto/prashant raviImage caption
Mr Kumar's house in Begusarai district of Bihar
Image copyrightbiharphoto/prashant raviImage caption
Mr Kumar's father is a small farmer who now is paralysed after a stroke
Image copyrightbiharphoto/prashant raviImage caption
Mr Kumar's mother is a rural health worker
"Things have obviously moved fast [since my arrest].
When my Facebook account is hacked, people raise money in my name and I
am targeted to run down my university, I feel a bit uneasy."
Mr
Kumar says his critics - mostly irate, older urbanites - who describe
him as an amateur in politics forget that he was initiated very early
when he was studying at a college in Patna.
"I was part of a
group in college which spoke out about why classes were not being held,
why women were harassed, why sons of politicians were misbehaving on the
campus."
'Lived experiences'
"So you have to understand that my politics is rooted in my lived experiences. It didn't happen overnight."
I ask him about his politics.
Some
of it is a mix of liberalism and boilerplate leftism: the battle in
India is "between pro-democracy versus anti-democracy, pro-people versus
pro-corporate". Other times, it is more nuanced: India's left parties
need "to get rid of their purity", secular parties should unite against
the scourge of religious politics, the "progressive forces" have
regrettably ceded space to the right-wing, parties should leave their
student wings alone to help them grow freely.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption
There were widespread protests against Mr Kumar's arrest
Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Right-wing student groups have supported the arrest of JNU students
Despite the events of the last month, Mr Kumar looks
unusually calm. He is not easy to provoke. It is difficult to figure
out whether he's being cheeky or earnest when he names Anupam Kher and
Paresh Rawal, two Bollywood actors, who openly back Mr Modi's BJP
aggressively, as his favourites.
So there is also a life beyond
politics. Days before he was put behind bars for shouting slogans -
reports say some of the videos of his speech telecast by some channels
were doctored - he discovered Leonardo DiCaprio.
"I am brushing up
my English, so we went to watch The Revenant. I loved it, mainly
because of Leo. My friends were telling me that he should have won the
Oscar much earlier. I had no idea about his previous work.
"When I was in jail I heard that he had won the Oscar. I felt very happy."
Kanhaiya Kumar, whose arrest on charges of sedition catapulted him to
the centre stage of student’s politics and ignited a nationwide debate
on nationalism and free speech, will come out with a book on his
eventful journey from a nondescript Bihar village.
The book - Bihar to Tihar - will tell the story of his journey from his school, his deepening involvement in student politics, his controversial arrest.
“Bhagat Singh had said it is easy to kill individuals, but you cannot
kill ideas. I do not know where this fight of ours will take us, but I
thought our ideas should be permanently etched in history as a book,”
28-year-old Kanhaiya said on his book.
The JNU Students Union president also said he wanted to write about the
“inherent contradictions” of Indian society through his personal
experiences and to “reveal the hopes, despair and struggles” of the
youth of India.
The book will be published by Juggernaut publication.
Kanhaiya was arrested in February on charges of sedition
in connection with a controversial event at the JNU campus against
hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. His arrest had
triggered widespread outrage and protests. He was released on bail on
March 3.
He is from village Bihat near Barauni in Begusarai district of Bihar. He
moved to JNU after completing his post graduation from the Nalanda Open
University in Patna.
Currently, he is pursuing PhD in African studies at the School of International Studies.
Police detain a Bajrang Dal activist who hurled a shoe at JNUSU
president Kanhaiya Kumar (right) during a lecture session in Nagpur on
Thursday. Photos: PTI
The Hindu
A section of the audience who attended the speech of JNU Student Wing's
president Kanhaiya Kumar at Dhanwate Hall in Nagpur on Thursday. Photo:
Pavan Dahat
Give me a pair, some poor man can use it, says president of JNU Students’ Union.
An attempt was made to disrupt a program of the Jawaharlal Nehru
University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in Nagpur on
Thursday by hurling a shoe when he was addressing a gathering hardly one
kilometer away from the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters
here.
The JNUSU president, who is facing cases of sedition for allegedly
raising anti-national slogans at the JNU campus, was in Nagpur on
Thursday to participate in various programs on the occasion
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar’s 125 birth anniversary celebration.
Some right wing organizations had already threatened to stall his
program organized by the Progressive Students Youth Action committee.
Five Bajrang Dal men tried to stop a vehicle in which the JNUSU
president was traveling from Nagpur airport to Deekshabhoomi (the place
where Dr.Ambedkar embraced Buddhism with his followers).
The Bajrang Dal men also tried to hurl some stones at his vehicle, however, the police detained them.
When Kanhaiya began to address a packed hall at Dhanwate national
college here at around 2 pm, 10 to 15 men greeted him with the slogans
of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. All the protesters, who belonged to the ABVP,
were swiftly evicted out of the hall by the organizers.
When the JNUSU president was midway in his speech, a person sitting on
the dais , hurled a shoe at him resulting in pandemonium in the hall.
The attacker was arrested by the police and was identified as Hariram
Shende, a Dalit youth reportedly related to a frontal organization of
the RSS
However, Kanhaiya continued his speech and reacting to incidents, he
requested the attackers to give him the other shoe in his pair.
“I request the person who threw shoe at me to give me a complete pair.
Some poor man can use it. I lost my slippers at Deekshabhoomi this
morning and I know it’s heating outside so if someone wants to throw
anymore shoes at me, please bring a pair so that I can use it outside,”
he said.
“This incident has compelled me to speak on some topics I was silent on
until now. I have never spoken on what happened in JNU incident. But
with this repeated shoe throwing saga, I think I should speak on those
topics now. Those, who are destroying constitution by saying ‘Bharat
Mata Ki Jai’ and attack people, are defaming these slogans. If they had
faith in ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, then they would also had faith in this
country’s tradition of truth and non-violence. Why do they indulge in
violence again and again? What revolution do they want to bring by guns
and bombs? Which patriotism are they practicing by throwing shoes at
people?” he added.
When asked about a Dalit youth hurling shoe at him, the JNUSU president
said, " I dont know if he was Dalit. Its sad that Dr. Ambedkar has been
read less and more misinformation has been spread in his name. At times,
the social act of a person overshadows his identity. We have a Backward
caste Prime Minister, have all the problems of the Backward classes
been solved? There are Dalit leaders like Ramvilas Paswan who have
joined the BJP led government. This is all an attempt to divert common
public attention from public issues."
NEW
DELHI—After facing criticism from Sikhs internationally, Kanhaiya Kumar
has stated that his comments were taken out of context in an article
published by Outlook India and Huffington Post India on March 28.
Outlook India quoted Kumar as saying, “There is difference between
emergency and fascism. During emergency, goons of only one party were
engaged into goondaism, in this (fascism) entire state machinery is
resorting to goondaism. There is difference between riots of 2002 and
1984 Sikh Pogroms.”
