How BJP Student Wing Reacted To Kanhiya Kumar, Who Trended Worldwide

New Delhi:  Kanhiya Kumar's speech, delivered last night at the Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU, where he pledged his commitment to fighting for "azaadi (freedom) not from, but in India" catalyzed him into a worldwide trend on Twitter.  The nearly one-hour -long address  was fiercely critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.  Unsurprisingly, students from the ABVP, the youth wing of the ruling BJP, aren't impressed

Mr Kumar, President of the Left-affiliated JNU Students Union, was arrested on sedition charges last month, forging an international debate on whether  the government is using the charge of "anti-national" as a fig leaf for cracking down on dissent and free speech.

Mr Kumar has denied making anti-India remarks at a rally at JNU in February, after which he was arrested. Footage of Mr Kumar that was televised by some news channels has been declared doctored by a forensic lab that was asked to examine the video by the Delhi government.

"Nobody is anyone's enemy here, everybody sits together and has tea as we  discuss our ideologies, but if anyone is going to do sloganeering against our country we would react," said Saurabh Verma, General Secretary of the BJP's student wing at JNU. It was on the basis of an ABVP complaint that a BJP parliamentarian filed a police case last month, leading to the jailing of Mr Kumar after a controversial police raid on campus to find him. Two other students from JNU are still in prison. 

Mr Kumar, 28, has been given bail by the Delhi High Court with a list of conditions that include a commitment to not participating "actively or passively in any activity which may be termed anti-national". 

Mr Sharma  said that the Delhi government's inquiry, which clears  Mr Kumar of making inflammatory remarks, is not the last word on the case. "Kanhaiya  Kumar has got conditional bail; we believe in the workings of the court, we are waiting for the final result," he said.


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JNU row: ABVP hit hard by Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar incidents

Jawaharlal Nehru University was in the news about six months ago too, but for an altogether different reason. There was strong buzz of a Saffron surge in what was considered a Left bastion, thanks to the impressive performance of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the student union elections.

But now ABVP appears to be on the back foot in the JNU campus where the majority student opinion seems to be in favour of Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of JNU students union who has been arrested on charges of sedition, even splitting the ABVP ranks on 'liberal' and 'hardline' camps. 

Explaining the ABVP's predicament, an office bearer of its JNU unit said, "Many new students joined us after the BJP came to power in the Centre, partly influenced by Narendra Modi and partly because they thought being in power we will be able to get additional funds released for constructing hostels — a major concern not resolved by the ruling left. Some also thought they will be able to get jobs as professors. However, today, the unit is riddled with differences— some are liberal, hardline—due to the way in which the government handled the Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar episodes." 

Vemula, a Dalit student at Hyderabad Central University, had committed suicide last month purportedly over caste discrimination. It is this inability to sensitively handle the two issues that took away last year's momentum in ABVP's favour in JNU campus.

Similar arguments were given by three ABVP office bearers who resigned on Wednesday night. The joint statement mentions their inability to be "mouthpieces of a government which has unleashed oppression on the student community". 

According to the ABVP office bearer quoted earlier, resentment began to build after the "mishandling" of the Vemula episode and peaked after Kumar's arrest and what followed. 

"We had suggested having a Manusmriti burning event to answer all the left parties' allegations about us. But there were disagreements within. Some said it (Manusmriti) has both good and bad things, so we should we not burn it. In the current issue, the ShutDownJNU hashtag was also supported by the JNU unit (of ABVP)," he said. "How will we be able to counter the left on campus this way?" As politically unaffiliated third-year graduate student of Russian, Upasna Vashishtha said, "Nobody supports the anti-national slogans. But how does the ABVP not oppose Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest? There is no evidence against him. Also, because of this entire controversy, we are being called anti-nationals. My aunts called up to ask why I am studying in a university such as this." This is a strong adverse turn for the ABVP on campus. 

According to ABVP's JNU unit president Alok Singh, it had only around 25 active members in 2013, which increased to 40-50 in 2014, but in 2015, the number increased to more than 100. The ABVP won one of the four posts on the central panel of the students' union after 14 years, and came second in two. Before that, it had won a post in the central panel in 2000 when current BJP member Sandeep Mahapatra won the post of president. 

JNU students' union comprises a central panel of four elected members and each of the schools and centres has separate posts and polling. ABVP rarely wins the central panel, but has its own "vote bank" in schools teaching natural sciences where it wins some seats.

ABVP's attempt at mounting a campaign against "anti-national" elements on JNU campus — it released the February 9 event's videos to news channels — appears to have backfired with the opposition's 'Save JNU' campaign creating more buzz than ABVP's 'JNU for Nationalism' campaign. Kumar's arrest and violence inflicted on him and media persons by a mob, including a BJP MLA, at the Patiala House Court.

Speaking with ET, ABVP JNU unit president said, "The politics that happened in this matter has been a little wrong. I accept that. The debate was never about JNU versus ABVP nor should it ever be. It was about anti-nationalism on campus. But this campus has been Lalgarh (red bastion). We ABVP activists are (say) 50, but what those 500 (left activists) talk to students' matters.

They are spreading rumours. Since we brought up this issue, it has become a matter for their survival. So, everybody, students and teachers' unions, have ganged up against us." 

ABVP JNU secretary Lalit Pandey, however, said, "Those with a nationalist approach are still with us. Campus politics is fine. But our politics is for the nation and we are receiving support outside, across the country."

He regretted that the issue had changed from Afzal Guru event speeches to "Saving JNU" and Kanhaiya Kumar, but insisted that ABVP is for JNU since it organised three marches by the name of 'JNU for Nationalism'. 

The ABVP office bearer quoted earlier, though, strongly differed with Pandey. "The Parishad has tried hard to dominate the campus, but left control is still not easy to shake off. This time the organisation went too far, and entire country looks at the university as anti-national now. This has hit student perception about us seriously," he said. 

Rival unions are latching on to this. "At the recent march to Jantar Mantar, students who are not members of any unions were giving out red roses to ABVP joint secretary in JNUSU Saurabh Sharma saying, 'Don't spread hatred'," CPM-affiliated Students' Federation of India's JNU unit secretary G Suresh claimed. "Nearly 4, 000 students from JNU participated in the march. This shows the entire campus is against their campaign," he said. 

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Pro-Afzal Guru sloganeering: JNUSU fight gets intense, AISA denies making anti-national slogans

Who raised anti-national slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University on 9 February? As the campus virtually turned into a battleground on Friday with the right wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and a section of the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) and the Left-affiliated All India Students’ Association (AISA) on opposite sides, the question begs for an answer.

The JNUSU and AISA have claimed of not having any involvement in the entire episode of hailing Afzal Guru as a “martyr”.JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid through her WhatsApp message said, “We the JNUSU office-bearers are appalled at the way uproar has been created over the 9 February happened in the campus. We condemn the undemocratic slogans that were raised by some people on that day. In fact, when the sloganeering had been taking place, it was the Left-progressive organisations and students, including JNUSU office-bearers, asked the organisers to stop the slogans, which were regressive. What is happening here at JNU is a repetition of Hyderabad Central University.”

She said: “JNUSU president has been arrested. Police are doing rounds of the campus and mindlessly witch-hunting activists. RSS is running campaigns to shut down JNU. No JNU student ever raised any unprincipled slogan in the campus. Don’t you think it’s wrong to arrest JNUSU president? If tomorrow there’s Congress government in power and JNUSU president is from ABVP, what would happen? It has set a bad precedent.”

Reacting sharply to the statements of JNUSU and AISA members, Saket Bahuguna, Delhi, state secretary of ABVP said, “Debate on what -- whether Afzal Guru should be hailed or not? Can any Indian stoop so low as to raise 'anti-India' slogans and hail terrorists involved in Parliament attack that killed our own people as 'martyrs'? It’s ridiculous. All such anti-national students should immediately be arrested and JNU campus should be made free of such elements.”

Earlier, students affiliated to the ABVP had staged a rally at India Gate demanding immediate arrest of the “anti-national elements” in the JNU campus. This was in response to a rival protest on campus by other unions.

After Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s instruction to take stringent action against the “anti-national” elements in the campus, the Delhi Police have detained JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.

“Anti-national activities and forces won’t be tolerated. Anyone raising anti-India slogan or questioning India’s integrity won’t be spared. Government will take tough measures,” Singh had said earlier in the day.

The students' union leader has been booked for sedition, even as protests were going on outside Delhi demanding action against the protesting students. The police have claimed that Kumar was seen in a video in which people were allegedly raising anti-national slogans. Kanhaiya’s arrest has already made JNUSU members angry. They have got into a war of words on social media and WhatsApp.

However, such incidents like the one happened on 9 February is nothing new in the JNU campus. Earlier too, debates and discourses were held on Naxalism and on Afzal Guru.

“Earlier too, Afzal Guru had been discussed and was hailed as a ‘martyr’ in the campus. ABVP is flexing muscles with the support of the Central government, but that’s not the JNU tradition. In JNU we arrive at rational positions through debate and discourse. ABVP could have called an all-organisations’ meeting or University general body meeting on this issue,” remarked Rama Naga, general secretary, JNUSU.

ABVP has demanded the government to identify all the students who raised slogans in favour of Afzal Guru from the video footage and arrest them.

What happened on 9 February?

The controversy at JNU erupted on 9 February when some students had pasted posters across the campus inviting people to a protest march against the "judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt" and in solidarity with the "struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination" at the varsity's Sabarmati dhaba.

During demonstration, students holding placards bearing Afzal Guru’s photos shouted anti-national slogans, hailing Guru as a ‘martyr’.

A video of the said incidents shows students, including boys and girls, holding placards displaying photos of Afzal Guru raised slogans and hailing him. The Delhi Police have claimed that one of students in the group was JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. “That’s why he has been detained. The probe is on,” a police source said.

The members of ABVP objected to the event and wrote to the vice-chancellor that such protests should not be held on the campus of an educational institution, prompting the university administration to order the cancellation of the march as they "feared" it might "disrupt" peace.

The JNU administration has already instituted a "disciplinary" inquiry as to how the event took place despite withdrawal of permission and said it will wait for the probe report before taking any further action.

“JNU administration has nothing to do with that incident and no permission was taken to hold such a demonstration. The administration has initiated an inquiry into the issue,” an administrative official of JNU told Firstpost on the condition of anonymity.

The incident and the follow up protests by ABVP have eventually turned JNU campus a ground for political battle.

While CPM leader D Raja 'strongly condemned' the arrest of the JNUSU president, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said, "Those living in our country and still raising such slogans against the nation is not acceptable. We take such incidents very seriously.”

The police have also booked Delhi University professor SAR Geelani for sedition and issued a summons to him, CNN-IBN reported.

However, the Congress party has strongly criticised the incident.

“UPA government carried out Afzal Guru's sentence after due process for 13 December 2001 Parliament attack. No one should eulogise him,” party communication department chief, Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.

“The shameful incident of 9 February has exposed the ulterior motives of Left-backed students’ unions like AISA, SFI and AISF, who hailed a traitor and terrorist as a ‘martyr’. Instead of paying tribute to our Indian soldiers and martyrs, they chose Afzal Guru, Maqbool Bhat and Naxalites above them. Government must take strongest action against such anti-national and pro-Pakistani elements in the campuses. ABVP will continue to hold protests and demonstrations across the country,” said Shreerang Kularni, in-charge, national media & PR, ABVP.

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