Umar spoke to dna about his political views, his time in prison and how the JNU row has strengthened the student movement in India.
Moments after Umar Khalid was released on bail from Tihar, he declared to an audience of thousands that the current government wanted 'peace that is found in graveyards'. He also said that he was was here to stay.
Hours after his public speech, Umar was up and running to present his paper titled “Changing Village Authority in the Adivasi Hinterland: State, Community and Contingencies of Rule in Singhbhum (1830-1893)", and it was hard to tell that the JNU student had spent almost three weeks in jail.
"There was a plan put in place to target us.The BJP government and their ideological partners, that is the RSS, thought they will break us. But the thing about plans is that you only control them to an extent. After sometime, things happen which are not in your control. In this case, it was this resistance offered by the student movement," said Umar while speaking to dna.
His friend Anirban Bhattacharya said that one of the prominent differences between his and Umar's family was the 'response', a reflection of which he saw in Umar as well. While for his 'Brahmin Hindu' family, the 'media trial' and his subsequent arrest, was something new, Anirban said 'it was in a way disturbing to see how prepared Umar's family was while dealing with the arrests or with the witch-hunting of their son'.
Umar shared somewhat similar thoughts and attributed this 'preparation' to the experiences of his life. "I have grown up in Jamia Nagar and have seen the after effects of the Batla house encounter wherein innocent people were branded as terrorists. Add to this, my family has a political background and I have seen how people used to get picked up by the police, the arbitrary arrests and the witch-hunt. In a way, my family was better prepared, but honestly even I couldn't believe that the issue will be blown to such a proportion," said Umar. He added that the transfer of the JNU case to the Special Cell was the final gift to the varsity by former Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi. "The cell looks into terror cases, in which by the way, their record of acquittals is almost 70 percent. When we heard the case has been transferred to them, we knew that we are in jail for the long haul," he said.
Umar however added that nothing compared to the fear he felt for his family when he was 'underground'. "I am a communist and have been one ever since I began to understand world politics. Yet I was branded as a Muslim anti-national, a Jaish-e-Mohamad operative and what not. This only means that no matter how many identities one has transcended in his mind, the person will be reduced to his immediate identity. Just like how Rohith Vemula was and the result is that even today, my father has to walk around with protection. My sisters feared for their security," said Umar.
Now out on bail, Umar believes that the entire row ended up strengthening the student movement in India. "We have been on the streets to protest on a multitude of issues. The rights of Muslims, women, Dalits and adivasis. We have raised issues including riots in Gujarat, police repression in tribal land and the loot of resources by corporations. What this crackdown has done is that while previously 50 of us would protest for such issues, now you can see 500," said Umar
The JNU student has no qualms about the time he spent in prison. "In jail, I had a lot of time to think, even after spending a lot of time watching television," Umar smiles and says. He said that while he wanted to teach, the entire JNU incident has given him quite a few things to think about.
Umar was previously part of the Democratic Students Union, which in sections of media, has been termed as an 'ultra-left' student group. When asked to share the reason behind him parting away with the group last year, Umar said, "I had rejected the parliamentary left because I believed, and still do, that they have a very economist perceptive which results in them disconnecting with the masses. But I have also realised that besides our differences with them, the time has come to unite and defeat fascist forces in the country".
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