Kanhaiya released from jail; Wants freedom within India, not from India

NEW DELHI, March 3: Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was given a roaring welcome at JNU upon his release from Tihar jail on Thursday -- nearly three weeks after he was arrested on a controversial sedition charge -- and said he never “asked for freedom from India, but freedom within India”.

Kumar, who returned to the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus amid celebrations by hundreds of students and teachers, took on the Prime Minister, saying “Modiji only says ‘mann ki baat’, but doesn’t listen to it”

As the sprawling university campus was enveloped in darkness after street lights mysteriously went off before Kumar’s return, slogan-shouting students massed in the open holding flaming torches and carrying placards and posters hailing the student leader.

In his speech, which was peppered with quips over his time in jail, Kumar said: “We want ‘azaadi’ from people who are looting the country.”

“I come from a village. Where there are a magic shows. People show magic and sell rings that fulfill all wishes...We have some people like that in our country, who say black money will come back, sabka saath sabka vikas (development for all),” Kumar said in his veiled dig at the Modi-led government.

“We Indians forget too soon but this time the ‘tamasha’ is too big and these ‘jumlas’ won’t be forgotten,” he said to a loud cheer.

Kumar said we wouldn’t comment on the case against him as the matter was in a court of law.

Addressing students at the campus, the 29-year-old said he had many differences with the PM but he agreed with his tweet “Satyameva Jayate”, which he had posted in praise of HRD minister Smriti Irani’s speech in Lok Sabha on the JNU row.

The February 12 arrest of Kumar, the first president of the JNU Students Union from the CPI-affiliated AISF, was widely denounced, more so after he was beaten up in a Delhi court on two days by some lawyers.

Kumar said he had no ill feelings towards anyone and won’t indulge in a “witch-hunt” towards the ABVP. “There is no animosity towards ABVP because we are democratic. We see them as our opposition,” he said.

“Let me just say it is not easy to get admission in JNU neither it is easy to silence those in JNU,” he added. He said his arrest is a planned attack on JNU.

“This attack is to delegitimise the UGC protests, to prevent justice to Rohith Vemula (the dalit scholar in Hyderabad who committed suicide,” he said.

Delhi Police kept claiming that they had irrefutable evidence that Kumar had raised anti-national slogans but failed to come up with the evidence in the court, weakening their case.

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court gave a six-month interim bail to the jailed student leader but made wide-ranging observations on issues such as nationalism and love for the country that were quickly lapped up by the establishment and denounced by legal experts as unwarranted.

Judge Pratibha Rani told Kanhaiya Kumar to ensure that no “anti-national” activity took place in the JNU.

During the course of his one hour, six minute-long speech, he also referred to Modi’s narration of an anecdote related to President Nikita Krushchev of erstwhile Soviet Union in the Lok Sabha.

“When he (Modi) was speaking I wanted to tell him to talk about Hitler as well. He should speak about Mussolini as well after all his guru Golwalker (second RSS chief) had met the former... PM talks about mann ki baat but does not listen,” Kumar said in his speech.

“If you speak against the government, their cyber cell will frame you using doctored videos and count the number of condoms in your hostel,” he said.

He also responded to arguments that invoke the martyrs of Indian Army in criticising the JNU students protesting against the government.

“I salute those soldiers dying at the borders. But what about farmers committing suicides in abject poverty? Those farmers are the fathers of majority of those soldiers. My father is a farmer, my brother is a soldier.
Kumar referred to his conversations with police inside the prison and said how those personnel, “majority from poor families” seconded his arguments about the need for freedom for corruption and casteism.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who also found mention in Kumar’s speech along with Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, tweeted: “What a brilliant speech by Kanhaiya...”

#KanhaiyaKumar became the top trending topic on Twitter following the speech. Many students were seen wiping tears during Kumar’s address.

Kumar and other students also repeatedly raised ‘azaadi’ slogans, seeking freedom from casteism, patriarchy and injustice among others.

Former members of the JNU unit of the ABVP, who resigned recently, were also present among the audience.

“We are all relaxed that Kanhaiya is back but the fight is far from over,” PhD student Priyanka Das said, summing up the general mood in the student community.

“We will maintain the solidarity till Anirban (Bhattacharya) and Umar (Khalid) are back and safe,” she added, referring to the two other student activists who too are in jail on sedition charges.

While world is slipping, India is growing: Modi

NEW DELHI, Feb 14: Rejecting opposition criticism over the state of the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as the world was grappling with financial crisis, India alone was "progressing at a rapid pace" because of the policies of his government.

"Everyone is saying this... the World Bank, the IMF. The world is going through an economic crisis, but it is India alone that is progressing at a rapid pace. This is a unique situation when the whole world is slipping and India is growing," PM Modi said on Sunday.

"People across the world are saying that the steps taken by the government have led to India becoming the fastest growing economy among the larger economies of the world," he said.

He was speaking at an event to celebrate the birth anniversary of Swami Dayanand Sarawati, the founder of the social reform movement Arya Samaj.

Modi's assertion came on a day when Congress said it would demand a white paper on the state of the economy in the Budget Session of Parliament beginning February 23.

Former Union minister and deputy leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said that Congress would demand a white paper on the economy in view of the "boastful claims" of the Prime Minister.

Listing out several "pro-people" schemes launched by his government, the Prime Minister referred to the Skill India initiative and MUDRA Bank.

"One thing can free us from our problems, from poverty, from lack of education and that is development," the Prime Minister said.

"Over two crore people have benefited from MUDRA Yojana and over Rs one lakh crore has been disbursed to them. Financial support has been given to people and we have faith in them," Modi said.

Speaking about the formation of Arya Samaj in 1875 by Dayanand Saraswati, Modi said it had its roots in India's First War of Independence.

"1857 saw the first War of Independence. After centuries of slavery, there was a new zeal and that too not a small one. It did not restrict itself to 2000 to 5000 freedom fighters, but the entire country stood up.

The Prime Minister said, "One thing can free us from our problems, from poverty, from lack of education and that is Vikas (development)".

Observing that many people have said that 21st century would be India's century, the PM said this century is the "era of knowledge" and India has always led the world in knowledge.

He called upon the youth to take a pledge to enhance India's prestige in the world fora through their skills and knowledge.

"There is the public sector and the private sector. We want to introduce another sector - the personal sector. We want the people to be self-sufficient and self-employed to be become job creators and not job seekers," the Prime Minister said.

Maintaining that his government had introduced schemes to make the people especially the youth self-sufficient, he spoke of the Jan Dhan Yojana and said over Rs 30,000 crore was deposited in the accounts under the scheme.

Through such schemes, the poor can come out of the clutches of the rural money-lenders, he said.

Noting that 60 per cent of India's population was below 35 years of age, Modi said India was the "youngest nation in the world".

"The government's focus is on how the power of the youth can be used for development of the nation. Therefore, we not only launched a skill development programme, but also created a new ministry, with its own budget and a set of officers to take the programme forward," Modi said.

By 2030, when the population of many countries will grow old and when they require work force, India can power these nations with skilled and technically qualified manpower, he said.

"Apart from having certificates in their hands, our youth must be skilled," he said and exhorted the youth to "pick up any one idea and work on it...let India's strength on the world stage increase through the idea you pick."

He also welcomed the support offered by DAV College Committee for cleaning the Ganga. On the initiative, Modi said several governments in the past had tried to clean the river, but were not successful. However, "if people make up their mind, the mission can be easily achieved."

"Many governments came and went while trying to clean the Ganga, but could not complete the task. If we decide not to allow degradation of Ganga, no power in the world can do it.

"A clean Ganga makes India proud on the world stage," he said.

Fire engulfs 'Make in India' stage in Mumbai

MUMBAI, Feb 14: A huge fire broke out on stage during a cultural programme at the Make in India event in Mumbai on Sunday evening. However, no casualties were reported as the venue, at the Girgaum Chowpatty area, was emptied within minutes.

Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray were a few meters from where the fire broke out gutted the stage.

The fire broke out of sparklers during a Lavani performance on the state at around 8.15pm. More than 15,000 people were present when the blaze began, police said.

Calling the incident ‘unfortunate’ CM Fadnavis said that the fire had been brought under control and gave information about the relief operations in a series of tweets.

He also said that the venue was evacuated immediately and traffic management allowed early dispersal without any trouble.

Fadnavis said a comprehensive inquiry into the incidence of fire will be conducted to ascertain the reasons.

According to disaster management officials, the fire was a Grade 2 event that calls for eight fire engines. Officials, however, rushed 14 fire tenders and 10 water tankers to the spot.

“We were shocked and confused when someone shouted ‘fire!’. We found that the fire wasn’t that bad initially,” said Anjana Sukhani, one of the dancers who was on the stage.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Make in India week in the city exhorting global business giants to set bases in the country.