Undeterred, student leader vows to continue fight for freedom
Undeterred, student leader vows to continue fight for freedom
Undeterred by having a shoe thrown at him, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday asserted that he would continue his fight for freedom and social justice, and ensure that the Rohith Act was enacted to end caste bias in educational institutions.
He said universities were under serious attack in the country under the Modi government with budgets cuts, adding he would see that no Dalit or poor was denied education.
Two youth, suspected to be ‘Gomatha Raksha (cow protection) Dal’ activists, threw a shoe at Mr Kumar leading to a commotion at the seminar he addressed on “Constitutional Rights” at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram here on Thursday.
While the shoe missed the target and fell near the stage, All India Students Federation activists and others in the audience caught hold of the youth and thrashed them, even as Mr Kumar asked them to leave the youths alone. The youths raised anti-Kanhaiya and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” slogans.
Police rushed into the auditorium and whisked them away to the police station. They were identified as Naresh Kumar and Pavan Kumar.
“Rohith’s fight does not pertain to a university. The fight is to end untouchability, remove the gap between rich and poor and attempts to create a wedge between us. Whether its Marxists, Ambedkarite, Socialist, Lohiyait or Centrist, all sections of people are under attack today. Because there is an attack on freedom in this country,” Mr Kumar said.
He added, “I thank Modi Ji and his police since they gave us publicity. And now some people want to gain publicity by attacking me. Let them take publicity. This is Gandhi’s country. Do whatever you want; you will not have a Godse temple. It’s not possible. This is Bhagat Singh’s country, he said inquilab could be achieved in a peaceful manner, but not by throwing chappals and stones.”
“Are we doing politics or is the government doing politics The government has a pre-planned script to destroy autonomy of universities... The precise work of universities, intellectuals is to promote critical thinking (sic),” he said.
“There is a difference between ‘desh bhakti’ and ‘Modi bhakti’. Some people are trying to establish ‘Modi bhakti’ as ‘desh bhakti’,” he said.
Charging that there was a conspiracy to pit soldiers against the students, he said soldiers, farmers and students like Rohith Vemula are martyrs and that they cannot be pitted against each other. He said “Jai Sri Ram” was a political slogan while “Ram Ram” was cultural. “I will not stop the Rohith issue if I am stopped from going into the university. I will come to Hyderabad again. I am fighting for freedom of speech. I will continue to speak,” he said.
“Bharat Mata is not saffron. It has seven colours like a rainbow,” he said.
