Kanhaiya Kumar has become a poster boy of freedom ever since he was arrested from the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in Delhi on charges of sedition. In Kanhangad to receive the K Madhavan Foundation award, the AISF leader speaks to Manorama.
* From “anti-national” to the symbol of freedom, how do you feel?
It is a very dangerous situation when the ordinary people who fight for justice are portrayed as anti-nationals. The government is branding the people as anti-nationals to cover up its fiasco. The government is unable to do anything to solve the people’s problems.
* How do you see the advance of the Left in the campuses?
I do not see it as a victory for a particular party. The fight is no longer between left and right, but between justice and injustice. You could term as left those who fight for justice. They don’t belong to any party. When nothing is right in this country, then you are with the 'left'.
This is an age when nothing can be hidden yet many in the national media align with the government to mislead the people.
* Gauri Lankesh, Santanu Bhaumik, K J Singh...several journalists have been killed in quick succession.
It is in the Sangh Parivar’s interest to suppress journalists with a backbone. A journalist with a social reform agenda is always a threat to the government. Communal forces are scared of writers. They will always try to silence their critics.
* Can India look up to its marginalized sections?
Definitely. The BJP has been trying to sell Hindu unity. They claim to remove the caste differences among the Hindus because they know that the oppressed, including the dalits, are capable of fighting the imperial forces. The dalits have always been the flag-bearers of justice and equality.
* What is your message to the youth?
Not only to youngsters, I want everyone to be critical. Many of the people still have a foot steeped in the mire of feudalism. We have to shake that off to be liberated from injustice.
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