JNU students won't let Kanhaiya's bail muzzle dissent

President of JNU students’ union (JNUSU) Kanhaiya Kumar will spend one last night in Tihar, 18 days after Delhi police picked him up on trumped-up charges of sedition. After a series of protests all over the world, students have something to celebrate after days and nights of unending gloom and the spectre of arbitrary detention.

The day though began with mixed feelings. Marching from Mandi House to Parliament street in Delhi, the students united their voices in a single, unambiguous roar of azadi or freedom. Freedom to dissent, freedom to criticise and freedom for their friends languishing in jail.

“The government accused them of breaking India, now look, they have united India in fact”, remarked a government employee, watching the protest. While it is true that the movement was initially criticised for abandoning Umar and Anirban and being passive to the arrest of DU professor SAR Geelani, but the March 2 protest has put paid to all such criticisms. Armed with the forensic lab’s findings that the so called anti-national videos were doctored, ready with the "lies" spoken by HRD minister about Rohith Vemula, the students came out in large numbers and demanded that the law of sedition itself needs to be repealed.

“This is nothing but a political conspiracy to defame JNU and deflect attention from the issue of discrimination against Dalits in education”, said Prashanth, a student from Hyderabad who was present at the protest. Rohith Vemula’s mother was also present during the march but had leave mid-way because she wasn’t feeling well. 

Her companion told me that she is proud to see students uniting for Rohith and others. And proud for good reason; in less than ten days, another massive march reached parliament street, after which the students sat down in a disciplined fashion, and speakers from different backgrounds were invited to share their views. Vishwa Deepak, the journalist who resigned from Zee News over its media trial of JNU students, was welcomed by the students with cheering and the longest applause. 

“Your brave gesture gave us a lot of support, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts”, said Shehla from JNU after his speech, which spoke about the dangers of a biased media.

In the background, the giant tricolour fluttered a few hundred metres away in Connaught place. The students too had their own tricolours, and with it their sense of being Indian. One placard read, "Saffronism in not nationalism", while another said, "I am Umar", and yet another, "Our ideas are bullet-proof". 

The sun gradually faded away but not the energy of the students. The judgement on Kanhaiya’s bail was expected around 6pm but it was past 6.30 and there was no word from his lawyers. The crowd had thinned out considerably with only a couple of hundred students protesting and waiting for good news. And when it came, it electrified their protest. People hugged other people, strangers smiled at each other and nodded in relief, the darkness of the last 18 days appeared to vanish in the joy of Kanhaiya’s bail.  

“All is well”, remarked a protester camping since 2pm. "They have so much energy", said a man leaving one of the offices nearby. Indeed, they have much more energy and resolve. “We are waiting for Kanhaiya to come back to campus and lead the movement for the release of other comrades and for the removal of fabricated charges from other comrades”, said JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid who has been the face of the movement in Kanhaiya’s absence.