Two years after he was arrested by the Delhi police on the charge of sedition, turning him overnight into a symbol of the Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ movement, former students union president Kanhaiya Kumar is finally moving out of university politics to being a fulltime politician.
On Sunday, on the concluding day of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of India in Kollam, Kerala, the 31-year-old was elected to the 126-member National Council of the party.
Left parties find themselves in an ironical position, as despite a strong presence in university politics, they are starved of young blood. Mr. Kumar says the situation is about to change.
Drawing on the famous Charles Dickens line ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’ he says, “for youth, it is a bad time as well as a good time to be in politics. There is a serious threat to all our democratic institutions and there is so much hatred and polarisation. But this has also increased ideological awareness among the youth who are now more than willing to join mainstream politics.”
In two months Mr. Kumar will cease to be a student at JNU. “21st July is the last date for me to submit my thesis. After that I will be a social activist and not a students leader. But JNU is a second home for me and I will always remain organically connected to it,” he says.
Criticising the government alone is no solution, he says. Instead one has to offer an alternative. “Merely attacking the Narendra Modi and BJP government does not serve any purpose. We have to offer an alternative policy framework for the people to choose from.”
Mr. Kumar was born in Bihat, in Begusarai district of Bihar, a stronghold of the Communist Party of India. He does not deny that he will be fighting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Begusarai Lok Sabha seat is currently held by the BJP’s Bhola Singh. The CPI did get 17% of the voteshare in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “Now I am a part of the CPI and I will do whatever the party and its allies decide. I am not saying that if given a chance I will not fight the polls,” he added.
As a member of the CPI’s student wing – All India Students Association, he was elected president of the JNU students union. He was arrested on February 12, 2016, under section 124-A (sedition) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) for allegedly organising an event where some students protested the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and allegedly shouted ‘anti-national’ slogans.
