Hyderabad: All India Students’ Federation leader Kanhaiya Kumar launched a blistering attack on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government Tuesday, alleging that it was following a “divisive” agenda.
The former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president also alleged that a “corporate loot” was taking place in the country.
“The present government is a government of corporate loot. It is our primary responsibility to remove it. We are forming a united front for it,” he said, without elaborating.
Kumar said no decision had been taken on his contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “Whenever this question is asked, I reply that this is not decided yet,” he said at a “Meet the Press” event organised by the Hyderabad Union of Journalists (HUJ) here.
Kumar claimed that the common people of Begusarai in Bihar wanted him to contest the parliamentary polls, but neither his party CPI nor its allies had announced him as a candidate, nor was there any direct talk with him on the issue.
He alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was following a “divisive” agenda. Asked about the case against him, Kumar claimed that no chargesheet was filed even after more than two-and-a-half years.
The Delhi High Court recently set aside an order of the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s appellate authority imposing a penalty on Kumar in connection with a 2016 incident, in which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at an event. Kumar claimed he was not involved in the event.
“By taking JNU’s name, they (government) tried to raise a grand narrative in the country that whoever speaks against the government is a naxal, jihadi, anti-national and Pakistani,” he said. The charge of sedition against him was slapped in an “unknown FIR,” Kumar claimed, adding that the court had freed him, dismissing the fine imposed on him.
“We ask the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh), why don’t you put me in jail if I have links to Hafiz Saeed (terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba’s founder). If no, you have to take responsibility and resign from your post, because you have unsuccessfully tried to portray an ordinary student as a ‘deshdrohi‘ (anti-national) in the eyes of the people of the country,” Kumar said.