प्राइम टाइम : देश के सिस्टम पर मेरा भरोसा है- कन्हैया कुमार // Kanhaiya Kumar To NDTV // A mere student destroyed the hubris of the arrogant
देशद्रोह के आरोप में गिरफ्तार होने के बाद कल (गुरुवार को) जमानत पर रिहा होकर जेएनयू वापस लौटे जेएनयू छात्र संघ के अध्यक्ष कन्हैया कुमार ने NDTV से खास बातचीत में कहा कि '9 फरवरी का कार्यक्रम मैंने आयोजित नहीं किया था। देशविरोधी नारे लगे या नहीं लगे, इसके बारे में मुझे कुछ नहीं पता, क्योंकि मैं वहां मौजूद नहीं था।'
Kanhaiya Kumar To NDTV On Taking On Smriti Irani And PM Modi
"Patriotism for me is to never let a Hitler rise in India," said Kanhaiya Kumar in an interview to NDTV. The new political star, as some are calling him, junked the binary of JNU vs Army as "false and divisive". Asking netas not to use "sedition as a political tool", he said "there's a difference between deshdroh and rajdroh" and "deshbhakti is not only about wearing RSS uniform or about everyone saying Vande Mataram". His message to Narendra Modi: "you are Prime Minister of an entire nation, not one ideology".
Rightly, when you try
to silence one Kanhaiya, ghar-ghar se Kanhiaya nikelgenge.
When you first create
a straw man, brand him as an enemy that needs to be vanquished, marshal all
your available armies, launch a silly war and then get humiliated, it hurts.
Especially when you lack the humility to accept your folly.
It hurts when a young
man you wanted to just shut up, comes out and speaks the very lines you do not
want to hear. It hurts when he takes potshots at the prime minister and cracks
jokes at those who reacted too quickly and too early on the basis of "farzi (fake)
tweets". It hurts when anchors chase him for soundbites, it hurts when the
media allows him to dominate footage, cut live for every word he says.
There is a phrase in
Hindi that cruelly captures the feeling: chhati pe saanp lotna.
(Literally, to helplessly watch snakes crawl on your chest).But, who is to be
blamed for the heartburn of watching Kanhaiya Kumar turn into a hero? A month ago, Kanhaiya
Kumar was just an obscure student in an university. Left alone, he would
have tired of his
speeches, azadi slogans, completed his PhD
and joined the millions of men who eventually grow out of college idealism and
take up a job to earn a living.
He did not ask cops to
arrest him on charges of sedition based on flimsy evidence.
He did not ask TV
channels to broadcast doctored tapes to label him 'anti-national'.
He did not ask Vikram
Chauhan and his gang to beat him up in the presence of cops.
He didn't ask the
government to cry, "Hafiz Saeed's armies are coming!" on the basis of
a parody account, to count condoms and cigarette butts in the JNU dustbins.
Why begrudge him his
hour of triumph when he refused to just roll over, to become a willing victim
to a lynch mob, to satisfy a nation's crazed conscience? Kanhaiya did exactly
what anybody in his position would have done: Fight for survival, fight for his
honour.
Now, don't envy him
just because he lived to recount the tale. Rejoice instead that Satyamev
Jayate is still not an empty slogan in India. Find solace in the fact
that we are still not a banana republic where anybody can be put behind bars
without evidence, that Newshour debates have still not replaced courts and
their anchors are not arbiters of our destiny.
Celebrate that while
the uncles fly into a rage, this country's youth still has the courage to
stand up to the establishment when it does something wrong. Be grateful that
the future of the country is in safer hands. Calm down because
Kanhiaya will not go on to become the prime minister's challenger. People did
not rally behind him because they were looking for a political alternative.
Indians supported his fight because their conscience demanded they stand up
against injustice, speak up for a young man who was wronged. Those who could
see beyond the smokescreen of propaganda, stepped out of their echo chambers
and asked themselves, "What if I was Kanhaiya?"
See also
Sampradayikta
Virodhi Andolan :Documents
People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism - An Appeal to Democratic Citizens and Organisations of India
People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism - An Appeal to Democratic Citizens and Organisations of India
Kashmir Oral History
Mubashir Mir - Between Sanghi & Separatists: an alternate perspective from Kashmir
Mubashir Mir - Between Sanghi & Separatists: an alternate perspective from Kashmir
