A slap and an open letter: How JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar's fame took a nosedive in a day

Things did not go too well for JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar. On Thursday, Kanhaiya, who is facing sedition charges, was attacked on JNU campus by a youth believed to be an outsider. According to students and teachers present there, the attacker called the JNUSU leader for an interaction when he was attending the “nationalism” lecture at the university’s administration block. “Kanhaiya went to a corner to talk to him where the boy started abusing him and following the argument he slapped him. Seeing this, many students and university’s security guards rushed to rescue him,” a student said. [caption id=“attachment_2668466” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  JNUSU leader Kanhaiya Kumar. PTI[/caption] University’s security got into action and took the accused to the nearest police station where he has been detained for questioning, a police official said, adding his identity is yet to be verified. Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Kanhaiya was fined Rs 3,000 in October 2015 for misbehaving with a girl student of JNU. The incident had occurred on June 10, 2015, when the girl student asked Kanhaiya, who at the time was not the students’ union president, to not urinate in the open inside the campus. The girl, who now teaches at Delhi University, alleged that Kanhaiya “misbehaved” with her when she objected and also called her a “psychopath” while threatening her with dire consequences. Kamlesh Parmeshwari Kamlesh, infact, in a post of Facebook on 3 March wrote an open letter to Kanhaiya, whom she referred to as ‘Upholder of Women Dignity’. She wrote: “I am eligible to write this letter because I have an ugly encounter with this newly found Che Guevara of JNU and therefore I know his real face which I should definitely expose. I had my first and may be last encounter with this moron known as Kanahiya (the president of JNUSU) in June last year when he was urinating on road in JNU campus. When I objected, instead of saying sorry he not only shouted at me but also threatened me of dire consequence and suggested that I should take psychiatrist help.”

Why to create ‘False Revolutionaries’ : My open letter to the‘Upholder of Women Dignity’ Mr KanhaiyaThis spring will… Posted by Kamlesh Parmeshwari Kamlesh on  Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Following a complaint by her, the JNU administration held a proctorial inquiry that found Kanhaiya guilty. “The university… has found Kanhaiya Kumar guilty of misbehaving with an ex-student (female) and threatening her. “This act is serious in nature and unbecoming of a student of JNU and calls for a strict disciplinary action against him (Kanhaiya)… keeping his career prospects in mind, the Vice Chancellor has taken a lenient view in the matter,” said the office order issued on 16 October, 2015 by the then Chief Proctor, Krishna Kumar. “Kanhaiya is fined Rs 3,000 and also warned to be careful and not get involved in any such incidents in future. Otherwise, strict disciplinary action will be taken against him,” the order said. While an unsigned order was shared on social media by the girl, who accused Kanhaiya of being a “false revolutionary making claims about upholding the dignity of women”, the university administration confirmed in a statement that the letter was authentic and action was taken against the student leader. [caption id=“attachment_2668472” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kamlesh Parmeshwari Kamlesh in an open letter slammed Kanhaiya for misbehaving with her. Image courtesy: Facebook[/caption] “I am dejected and pained to see how my JNU community has ganged up to create false revolutionary. I want to ask, do you really understand the D for Dignity of a female, Mr Kanhaiya? “Unzipping your private part in public and urinating on road— are these your revolutionary tools to uphold a female’s dignity? I am shocked to see how a misogynist like Kanhaiya is being hailed as revolutionary,” she said in an open letter that is circulating online. Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court last week after spending 18 days in jail. Meanwhile, All India Students Federation (AISF), the outfit to which Kanhaiya belongs, said in a statement “talk about public urination and threatening are being spread to malign Kanhaiya’s image. He had a verbal argument with the girl following which she had registered a complaint. “We do respect the girl’s right to criticise Kanhaiya but we want to reiterate that he has always stood for gender justice. Also, when the incident took place, he was not the president of the students’ union,” it added. Here’s the letter which ordered the fine on the students’ union leader. 

With inputs from agencies