My hero Rohith, not Afzal Guru

New Delhi: On a day the Election Commission of India announced polls to the Assemblies of five States - West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry - JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, just out on bail from the Tihar Jail, set the tone and tenor for the Opposition campaign.

Move aside, Rahul Gandhis and Mamatas. Even Nitishkumars and Mualayams. There is a far better speaker than any of these in this country. Kanhaiya knows how to put two plus two together and how to cohesively and lucidly build on an argument.

The press conference, addressed by Kanhaiya at the JNU campus here on Friday to thank the nation that supported him, turned out to be a sharp attack on the "intolerance" of the ruling coalition which is being increasingly perceived as stifling of free speech in the country.

Reiterating that his hero would always be a Rohit Vemula of the University of Hyderabad who gave up his life fighting the barriers in the country and not any Afzal Guru, he said, adding that media should not brand ordinary students as anti-nationals in their over-enthusiasm or "for their own reasons".

Kanhaiya gave a full shape to the voices of individual protests as well as to those belonging to the anti-BJP and anti-Hindutva forces which have been struggling to fight the 'neo-nationalism' being touted in the country as true nationalism.

Pointing out that he and his fellow students as well those in the campus who come from all corners of the country were as much nationalistic as a soldier fighting in the borders to safeguard the country from the enemy to a farmer committing suicide in the killing fields of say Maharashtra, AP or Punjab or Telangana, Kanhaiya drew the line between pseudo nationalism and real nationalistic fervour.

Taking a dig at the tampered videos produced against them in the court, he said, "Thank god, the Constitution is not a video to be tampered. It is a document" to proclaim the supremacy of the Constitution. Kanhaiya stood up to question the inadequacies in the "samvidhan", imbalances in the economy and injustices that coexist in society in a simple and straight manner and asked why those running the government do not represent the people and instead represent a political party or a department.

"A Prime Minister should represent the country and the people. Why is he representing a party? Or why is his minister representing a department? I am elected student leader, hence I speak for my students. Is this not the way it should be", he asked questioning the hate campaign against the JNU. "We, the people of India" was the running theme of his speech on Thursday night at the JNU meeting as well in Friday's media interaction and he minced no words in questioning whether the government too believed in the same.

"Almost half the JNU alumni is in the civil services, why do you question our nationalism," he asked. Rebutting the charges of sedition, he said he did not want Azadi from India but within India. This Azadi was from corruption, superstitions, suppression and it was needed for every young man and woman of this country, he said.

On whether he would campaign for the Left in the ensuing elections, he said his duty was to represent the JNU first and his mandate was to ensure a mosquito-free campus (pun intended). As for those branding JNU students as villains, his said: "We are all like your own children coming from humble backgrounds.

We want to strengthen Indians and India with our contribution. Please do not brand us 'deshdrohis' because your unfair projection through tampered videos could harm us, your children. JNU belongs to you, the nation. It is your tax money that sustains us. We can only be as national as any of you are. But we question injustice. That is all". The Opposition should be thankful now for the focused attack on the government. What Rahul Gandhi's speech writers could not give him all these days, Kanhaiya did so in one go.