New Delhi, April 21: An old comrade is in the fray. And Kanhaiya Kumar couldn't refuse.
The JNU student leader, who has shied away from party politics ever since the sedition controversy landed him in jail, has agreed to campaign for a CPI candidate in Kerala for the May 16 elections.
With him will be a drama troupe - the JNU unit of the Indian People's Theatre Association, led by Bipasha Ghosh, a veteran of student politics in Bengal and Pondicherry.
But they will campaign only in Pattambi, a north Kerala constituency where fellow JNU comrade Muhammed Muhassin, from the All India Students Federation that Kanhaiya belongs to, is contesting on a CPI ticket.
Since the sedition controversy broke this February, Kanhaiya has always insisted he was a student who wants to be a teacher, not a politician. "With Muhassin, it's different," said an AISF leader. "Kanhaiya and Muhassin have stood together in every protest in Delhi. Supporting Muhassin is an extension of the struggle of progressive youths against fascism."
In February, police had descended on the JNU campus following an event to commemorate Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's execution. Kanhaiya was arrested after allegations that anti-national slogans were raised at the event, but more trauma was in store for the young man who was punched and kicked in court by a group of lawyers. He eventually got bail.
Sources close to Kanhaiya said he and the IPTA group would be in Pattambi in the second week of May, before campaigning ends. Before that they would go to Patna where Kanhaiya started his student activism. He might also visit his village in Bihar's Begusarai to meet his family, they added. "The AISF national leadership and the JNU unit support our brother Muhassin," Kanhaiya told The Telegraph. "Students from JNU will be going." Asked if he would go to Kerala, Kanhaiya said: "My JNU nationalism is attracting me."
Kanhaiya had campaigned in south Delhi in the lead-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and in Begusarai, when his home state Bihar voted last year. "After tiring days of campaigning and street plays, he would come back to campus and say the proletariat in south Delhi is confused about what we are fighting for. We need to unite with Bahujan and Congress progressives if we want to make a difference to their lives," a friend of Kanhaiya recalled.
It would be different in Pattambi, where Muhassin has taken on Congress veteran C.P. Mohammed. The PhD scholar explained why the CPI had cajoled Kanhaiya into agreeing to campaign for him.
"Recently, a 95-year-old man in a village here asked me if Kanhaiya was coming. This is a Left bastion, once represented by E.M.S. Namboodiripad (the first communist in India to head a popularly elected government). Voters closely follow the debate on nationalism and our struggle against fascism and communalism. The Congress here is playing the soft Hindutva card."
Kanhaiya and the IPTA troupe will mainly visit areas dominated by migrant labourers. "He speaks the language of the common man. Our JNU comrades will point out that the struggles of the common people of Kerala, Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh are broadly the same," Muhassin said over phone.
The IPTA troupe will perform plays in Hindi and English, using local idioms with guidance from Malayali IPTA members.
JNU fellowships
A JNU official said the fellowships of three students and the MPhil degree of one scholar, who faced a probe for commemorating Guru's death anniversary, would be released "shortly" following a meeting today that Kanhaiya and other student leaders held with chief proctor A.P. Dimri and rector Chintamani Mahapatra.
"Their names were blocked on the online administrative system as they were facing an inquiry. This has been resolved now and they will get their degrees and fellowships shortly," the official said.
