The youngster pulled no punches as he sprinkled his fiery speech with humour to take on the Modi government and Sangh Parivar.
Received like a returning hero on campus, Kanhaiya Kumar unleashed a furious attack on the government and the Sangh. Speaking in front of a packed crowd, Kanhaiya Kumar sprinkled his speech with humorous taunts and sarcastic jibes. Adding that he was prepared for a long fight, he shouted slogans of azaadi, adding that he didn’t have any grudges against the ABVP, who they considered the opposition.
He added that he believed that the attack on JNU was a planned one to delegitimise the UGC protest and dilute justice for Rohith (Vemula). Adding that Swamy (Subramanian) and the Sangh had attacked JNU before, he took digs at Modi comparing the government’s promises to bring back black money to those who show magic tricks that are illusions. He added that they never wanted freedom from India but from those looting India.
"The attack on the JNU is a planned attack. This attack is to de-legitimise the UGC protest and to prevent justice to Rohith Vemula. The fight which was initiated by Rohith Vemula, all of you and peace-loving people in the country, will be pursued by us and we'll win this battle," he said. "I would like to thank everyone at the JNU. All the people , whether media, political people, non civil society , who stood for saving JNU and those who want justice for Rohith Vemula, I want to salute them," he added.
In a sarcastic tone, he said, "I want to thank the people sitting in Parliament deciding wrong and right, the police and those few media channels." He appealed to his fellow students to join hands to free the nation from the clutches of the RSS, which is trying to divide the nation.
Asserting his belief in democracy and the Constitution, he said that whenever the ruling government has tried to exploit the people of this country, JNU has raised its voice against the oppression.
"Let me just say it is not easy to get admission in JNU neither it is easy to silence those in JNU said. We don’t look at the ABVP as an enemy. In fact we look at them like the Opposition. I will never do the witch-hunting of the ABVP because we believe that only those are hunted who are worthy of being hunted," he said.
Kanhaiya also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has many differences with the latter but he agrees with his tweet- Satyameva Jayate.
"The present ruling dispensation at the Centre is anti-people. If you will speak against them, its cyber cell would come out with doctored video and charge you with sedition," he added.
Asserting that there was a difference in ‘freedom from nation and freedom within the nation’, the JNUSU president said that students at the varsity have always stood for freedom from extremism and fundamentalism.
"Bharat se nahi mere bhaiyon, Bharat mein azaadi maang rahe hain. 'Se' aur 'Mein' mein fark hota hai. Bharat se nhi, Bharat ko lootne walon se Azaadi chaahte hain,’ he said.
Ending his hour-long address at the varsity, he urged his supporters to keep raising slogans of 'Azaadi'.
Quite ironically, the high court bench while granting him bail had said he will "not participate actively or passively in any activity which may be termed as anti-national" and told him that as president of JNU students union, he "will make all efforts within his power to control anti-national activities in the campus."
Disposing off the bail petition of a single judge bench of Justice Pratibha Rani stated, "I consider this as a kind of infection from which such students are suffering which needs to be controlled/cured before it becomes an epidemic. Whenever some infection is spread in a limb, effort is made to cure the same by giving antibiotics orally and if that does not work, by following second line of treatment. Sometimes it may require surgical intervention also. However, if the infection results in infecting the limb to the extent that it becomes gangrene, amputation is the only treatment."
Whether the judges will consider Kanhaiya's speech 'anti-national', is something we will have to wait and see. Here are some highlights from his speech:
Here are our reporter's live tweets from the event:
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