When Kanhaiya’s predecessors led the chorus for his release
8 March 2016 5:19 AM IST
As the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row fuelled a debate, predecessors of Kanhaiya Kumar in the JNUSU president’s post, too, had joined the protest against the sedition case filed over an event on its campus, saying they will oppose any bid to brand the university as ‘anti-national’.
While academicians and students across the country came out in support of the protesting JNU students, those who held the post of the JNU students’ union president before Kanhaiya, led the ongoing student movement.
Sucheta De, who was the JNUSU president in 2012, said, “It is in the JNU culture. Me and Kanhaiya belong to different parties, but this agitation was against the attack on students and their freedom of speech.” De, who is a PhD scholar, said the protest was against “the branding of the entire university as anti-national”.
Two-time JNUSU president Rohit (2002-2004), who now teaches at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, was among those who were attacked at the Patiala House court complex on February 15, when he had gone there to attend the hearing in Kanhaiya’s sedition case.
“When I graduated from being a student to a professor at the same university, I had thought my days of marching on the streets and being beaten up by the police were over. Little did I know I would be confronted with all of that again,” he said.
According to V Lenin Kumar, JNUSU president in 2013 and a PhD scholar, “The government chose the wrong university this time. We as student leaders have fought for some issue or the other cutting across party lines, be it Lyngdoh committee recommendations or payment of contractual workers. Kanhaiya’s arrest was just one of them”.
Kanhaiya had objected to cancellation of permission for Guru event: JNU registrar
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar had objected to the cancellation of permission for the controversial event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, JNU registrar Bhupinder Zutshi has claimed.
Zutshi, deposing before the high-power enquiry committee constituted by vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, is believed to have said that Kanhaiya was against the authorities’ decision to cancel permission of the February 9 event, during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
“I had called a meeting of JNUSU in my office at 3 pm on February 9 to discuss the route for the new bus acquired by JNU for disabled students. Kanhaiya Kumar and Rama Naga (JNUSU general secretary) reached first. Around 3 pm, we had a discussion on the bus route. After 10 minutes, Saurav Sharma (ABVP member and JNUSU joint secretary) also came. We all discussed the bus route for 10 minutes,” he said.
“Sharma later showed me a pamphlet regarding the ‘cultural event’ on ‘judicial killing of Afzal Guru’ and said some of the students are organising this event today (February 9, 2016) at 5 pm at Sabarmati Dhaba,” Zutshi said. He has maintained that when the university decided to withdraw the permission, Kanhaiya had objected to the cancellation.
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