S.M. Anwar Hussain | Caravan Daily
IT is really very disheartening and sad to learn that Kanhaiya Kumar is not being entertained by the secular gathbandhan in Bihar. It is learnt that he is keen to contest Parliamentary election from somewhere in Bihar as CPI candidate. CPI is of course no more a political force in Bihar to reckon with. But Kanhaiya Kumar must not be seen merely as CPI comrade by any political party.
As president of JNU Students’ Union, he had written a new history in the struggle and fight against the fascist forces not only in India but against all those who have been fanning hatred against Muslims and spreading Islamophobia across the globe by the United States of America and Israel. Kanhaiya is not simply seen as a student activist, he has become an icon of freedom against all types of injustices and discriminations.
When the country was dumbstruck against the repressive regime of Narendra Modi, he was the first one to raise his voice against the ever-increasing fascist tendency of this ghastly regime. From the campus to the court and from the court to the jail he was the boldest and most articulate voice of rationalism, Secularism, and freedom from all kinds of repression and political vices.
Kanhaiya should not be treated as an individual. He is an embodiment of all progressive and liberal voices in the country and a movement in himself. He is a boy who took lead in creating political awareness among youths and masses against the misdeeds of the blackest regime in India. A vast majority of youths, right activists, intellectuals, writers, Independent journalists, thinkers and the real secular forces of the country are with him. He is the darling of those who want to see India back on the Nehruvian secular and socialist political path.
Those who claim to believe in secular polity and want to see India as ‘unity in diversity’ should welcome Kanhaiya with open arms. Nobody should treat him as a future threat for himself or his kin’s political future. Of course, India needs him.
People who want freedom from poverty, freedom from unemployment, freedom from rape, freedom from mob lynching, freedom from dogmatism, freedom from hate, freedom from RSS, freedom from “Pulwama Conspiracy”, freedom from Surgical Strikes and freedom from non-military strikes just before any major elections , freedom from corporate sector hegemony , freedom from the Modi Media, freedom from sold out press barons, freedom from those who can amass black money in foreign banks in the name of bringing them back to national coffers, freedom from those who can put our defence at risk by indulging in the unprecedented corruption in Rafale deal, freedom from those who are hell bent to politicise our most non political armed forces, and freedom from those who can push the country into nuclear war just to win an election, freedom from those who can play with the Constitution, freedom from those who can try to influence Election Commission, freedom from those who want Judiciary to take orders from Nagpur, freedom from those who want to snatch from tribals their all ancestral belongings, freedom from those who do not give Dalits their right place and finally freedom from those who are hatching conspiracies to have Muslim and Islam-mukt Bharat, are all behind Kanhaiya.
It will be a big shock for the secular and liberal minds of India if Kanhaiya is blocked from contesting an election by secular parties itself.
Kanhaiya should not be seen in the background of cast politics of Bihar. He is neither a Bhumihar, nor an OBC, nor a Dalit. He is neither a communist of Stalin brand nor an advocate of Naxalism and any bloody revolution. He is the voice and soul of Present Indian consciousness. If RJD is not able to accommodate him due to reasons best known to its Satraps, Congress should extend a magnanimous hand towards him, adopt him and allot him a seat like Kishanganj or Darbhanga.
Young India will support him and back him. They are not going to judge him on the basis of cast and creed but for his principles that he stands for. He should also be ready to come out from the confines of CPI and be a strong arm of Rahul Gandhi who is continuously taking cudgels with Hindutva in the garb of, sometimes, soft Hindutva which should be treated merely an election strategy and need of the time. Muslims of Kishanganj are ready to sacrifice their sectarian interest over their national interest.
Kanhaiya! come forward, file your nominations, from any constituency with a party banner or without and contest election. Secular India is with you. And the vast majority of India is still secular, broad-minded and peace-loving in spite of RSS untiring efforts to poison their minds since long.
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The author is ex-President of AMU Students Union. The views expressed here are his personal.
