Kanhaiya’s mother never had a doubt that he was being “wrongly” charged of sedition. “I was pained by it because I knew he would do nothing like that. But, when I saw on television lawyers beating him up, I got scared,” Meena Devi said.
Separated by miles, three indomitable women are united in their will to stand by their sons against the state.
Meena Devi waited in Behat village of Begusarai in Bihar for 21 days to hear from Kanhaiya, Radhika Vemula mourned her son Rohith Vemula’s death in Hyderabad as she took on the Modi regime and the mother of Umar Khalid’s mother in the national Capital is all set to fight for her son however long the battle may be.
Kanhaiya’s mother never had a doubt that he was being “wrongly” charged of sedition. “I was pained by it because I knew he would do nothing like that. But, when I saw on television lawyers beating him up, I got scared,” Meena Devi said.
It was not his blazing speech that touched her as much as the fact that after her son was released from Tihar jail, she was one of the first persons he called. “He asked me how I was. He assured me that he had done nothing that I should feel ashamed of,” she told DNA, three days after Kanhaiya returned to JNU.
An anganwadi worker, earning Rs 3,000 a month, Meena Devi believed it was a conspiracy by some “bade log (big people)”.
“We are from a Communist family, not anti-nationals,” she said.
Kanhaiya’s brother Manikant said their mother, who had nursed their ailing grandmother for ten years and later their father who was partially paralysed after a stroke in 2009, was an inspiration for them. “I had heard from my grandmother that my mother went to school after she got married and came to my father’s home,” Manikant said.
He also recalled how their mother, on winter days, used to put a sack on the floor outside in the sun and make all her children-- three sons and a daughter-- sit together on it while she cooked. “She told us never to ask anything from anyone,” Manikant said.
If Kanhaiya's mother quietly took up the cudgels to defend her son, the mother of Umar Khalid, another JNU student arrested under sedition charges, has been the strength keeping the family together in what his father calls tough times.
Speaking to DNA, she said that she shared two relationships with her son-- one of the mother and the other of a political opponent. Umar, an atheist and a communist, has had a tense relationship with his mother since the past few years.
"Last two years I have not been talking to Umar properly. We are a religious family and have lived a simple life. Umar on the other hand has maintained the simple life but has let go off his identity as a Muslim. All that however doesn't matter now. I believe that the charges against my son are wrong and I will fight for him till as long as it takes," she said.
Having hardly interacted with the media, the mother felt that all her energy should be used for defending her son.
Like her, Rohith’s mother too has decided to put up a fight for her son. Rohith's brother Raja, who translated on the behalf of his mother, said her struggle had not ended. She had come all the way to the Capital to counter the claim made by HRD minister Smriti Irani in Parliament on Rohith’s death.
"My mother is not well and tomorrow also she might not be able to move around. We had some meetings planned but all that will be delayed. But even in these moment, she keeps on asking about the plans that we had made. She keeps on asking if Rohith is being discussed anywhere. Nothing can stop her from getting justice for Rohith," Raja said.
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