Headline May 14, 2016/ ''' *STUDENTS SHOWS HEROES* '''

''' *STUDENTS SHOWS HEROES* '''

WELL, WELL,  if you keep pestering me, then I will give you the following names as top-tier leaders. in the whole wide world:

President Barrack H Obama, O''Captain Imran Khan, General Raheel Shareef, Prime Minister David Cameron, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. All right at the top. And I could go on and on.

And if you want me to wager a bet, on the  future leaders, then,  Students : Rabo, Hussain, Shazaib, Salar, Qazi Hamza Amjad/Law, Eman, Ibrahim, Faizan Masood Reza, Zaeem Khan, Haider Sultan Abbasi, Toby/China, and two little mermaids Hanyia Khan, Merium Khan.    

All of the above, simply outstanding, gifted and talented. But they'll have to understand fear, and a sense of destiny,  and use it to their advantage  

I FOR ONE  -AND SO VERY SURE  like so many believe that, that in a nation desperate for heroes and soaked in a fertile media culture adept at myth making and instant vilification-

Student Kanhaiya Kumar has been thrust into an uncomfortable spotlight by a fumbling and offensive government and a clutch of hostile news channels. So does he feel like an accidental hero?

''I am no hero,'' says student Kumar. ''Thank the people who made me a hero, including a section of the media who work for a particular party. The real heroes and heroes are those who are fighting for democracy against an authoritarian regime.''

He does not suffer from any false modesty. He hasn't become famous overnight, he says. It has been a gradual process since he first arrived at Jawhharlal Nehru University [JNU]  from his village in Begusarai in Bihar.

[His father a small farmer, cannot work any longer as he is paralyzed after a stroke and his mother is a government childcare centre worker].

'Culture Shock'.

'I had a culture shock when I arrived at in JNU. There are students from 145 countries here. My horizons have grown. Last year, i was voted as the leader of the students union.'' he says.

Students say his rousing performance as in November's presidential debate -a Town hall discussion, a day before the union election made him a name in the campus. A Kumar speech delivered in Hindi, is usually an animated performance of oratory, rhetoric, wit and gladiatorial mojo.

''The number of Facebook friends jumped from 2,000 to 5,000. A thousand people followed me. There is now pressure from people when you are not updating your status. Four hundred people like your status now, up from 20 before,'' he says.

''Things have obviously moved fast [since my arrest]. When my Facebook account is hacked, people raise money in my name, and I am targeted to run down my university, I feel a bit uneasy.''

Student Kumar says his critics  -mostly irate, older urbanites,  -who describe him as an amateur in politics forget that he was initiated very early when he was studying at a college in Patna.

*''I was part of a group in college which spoke out about why classes were

not being held, why women were harassed, why sons of politicians were misbehaving on the campus.''*

''Lived experience.''

''So you have to understand that my politics is rooted in my lived experience. It didn't happen overnight.''

I ask him about his politics.

Some of it is a mix of liberalism and boilerplate leftism. the battle in India's between  ''pro-democracy versus anti-democracy, pro-people versus pro-corporate''. Other times, it is more nuanced. India's left parties need ''to get rid of their purity.''.

Secular parties should unite against the scourge of religious politics, the ''progressive forces'' have regrettably  ceded space to the right-wing, parties should leave their student wings alone to help them grow freely.

  

Despite the events of the last many months, Student Kumar looks unusually calm. He is not easy to provoke. It is difficult to figure out whether he's being cheeky or earnest, when he names Anupem Kher and Paresh Rawal, two Bollywood actors, who openly back Mr. Modi's BJP aggressively, as his favorites.

So there is also life beyond politics. Days before he was put behind bars for shouting slogans  -reports say some of the videos of his speech telecast by some channels were doctored  -he discovered Lenardo DiCaprio.

''I am brushing up my English, so we went to watch The Revenant. I loved it, mainly because of Leo. My friends were telling me that he should have won the Oscar, much earlier. I had no idea of his previous work.

''When I was in jail i heard that he had won the Oscar. I felt very happy.''      

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:

''' History Honours '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless