5/12/2016

Headline May 13, 2016/ ''' *STUDENT KANHAIYA KUMAR* : India's Most Loved And Loathed Son '''


''' *STUDENT KANHAIYA KUMAR* : 

India's Most Loved And Loathed Son '''




REVOLUTION  still remains some distance away at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University,  but this  'Indian Spring' , of  March 2016-

Has already arrived in the wooded campus with a stirring vengeance. A bank of bougainvillea is in full bloom, the air is crisp and pleasant, and parrots squawk and squirm noisily in a clear, blue sky.
  
On a rocky outcrop ringed by the flaming red and orange vines and red-brick living quarters for teachers, student Kanhaiya Kumar, India's most loved and loathed student looks remarkably composed.

*He is the President of the Students union*, is affiliated to the Communist Party of India, and considers himself a Marxist. It's been barely a month since the  28-year old PhD student of African studies-

Was picked up by the police and charged with sedition for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans at a meeting on the campus [At the time, two other students remain in custody].

The meeting has been organized against the 2013 execution of a Kashmiri separatist convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament attack, explain this brilliant author, Soutik Biswas.

Student Kumar's view have been divisive in India with some calling him ''anti-nationalist''.

It's a hardly a week since he was freed in bail, and and  he .......gave an impassioned speech on the campus that went viral.

Some however have expressed discomfort with his political energies, with one JNU professor saying that his speeches could be inflammatory.

Student Kumar,  according to political scientist Suhas Palshikar, is the latest student to be associated with the  ''simmering unrest''  on Indian campuses, a  ''result of the  BJP's newfound ideological aggression and political arrogance''. 

*Many others are calling him a Student Icon*. 'Met his Match'.

Over the last month, Student Kumar has inspired a hefty Wikipedia entry, paeans  to a rising leader:
*Red Star Over India* exulted  The Telegraph even listicles. His friends reckon he has has already given 50-media interviews in five days.

*A little known fringe group leader with paltry bank balance announced a bounty on his head,  his Facebook account has been hacked, his mobile phone seized by the police. Some people have even begun raising money in his name*.

Student Kumar's many admirers believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ''met his match''  in this feisty student.

But like the prime minister, the student leader is, at once, a controversial and polarising figure.

Makarand Paranjape, a INU professor of English, says he is uncomfortable with some of Student Kumar's  inflammatory rhetoric and the arrogance in his speeches.

This is a strange kind of polemic where there is acknowledgement of what the system is giving, there is no appreciation, only endless abuse,'' Prof Paranjape told Firstpost.    

His critics have called him an anarchist,  -a misguided idealist, a sloganeering     ''Johnny-come lately who is upstaging stalwarts'', and given him gratuitous advice on how he should stop politicking and begin earning for his poor parents.

A former  woman student  has raised objections to his conduct in public.
''I get up in the morning, do some work for the union, and then do interviews all day. They say after TV channels and newspapers, the magazine will come,'' he says.

Student Kumar seems to be basking in the warm glow of his meteoric media rise. When he's not handling the scrum, there's time for some light banter with friends.

When a friend teases him about being an attention seeker, he quips:
''Only [Prime Minister Modi] suffers from an attention seeker's syndrome.''

Some hearty laughter follows.

He's carrying some handwritten papers of Brecht's poetry, translated in Hindi. ''The book is out of print, so we are sharing these  handwritten poems.''   

The Honour and Serving of the ''Operational Research'' on *Students and Leadership* continues. Thank Ya all for reading and sharing forward.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society and the Ecosystem 2011:



''' !WOW! Connect '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

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