JNU powered Kanhaiya Kumar’s 2019 campaign. Why is it indifferent to former student leader this time
JNU powered Kanhaiya Kumar’s 2019 campaign. Why is it indifferent to former student leader this time
New Delhi: Kanhaiya Kumar might have lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to BJP’s Giriraj Singh by over 4.2 lakh votes, but the campaign of the former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader made a splash that would be a matter of envy for any debutant candidate.
From film celebrities rooting for his win, to a highly successful crowdfunding drive, Kanhaiya’s Begusarai campaign turned into a marquee contest, something that the Communist Party of India (CPI), which had fielded him then, is not quite known for.
Behind the high-octane campaign were a set of student activists, former campus leaders, and teachers, mostly from JNU, who remained in Begusarai for a month, nearly from the day he filed his nomination, till the silence period before voting day.
Door-to-door drives, corner meetings, street plays, live song performances — these volunteers, composed largely of student activists of the Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), a breakaway faction of the Students Federation of India (SFI), AIl India Students Federation (AISF), and a large number of non-affiliated individuals who had converged in Begusarai steered Kanhaiya’s campaign.
‘Theek ha’ — sung by D.K. Dheeraj, who was among the wider set of Left associated cultural activists to have recorded a number of songs for Kanhaiya, had become the campaign’s anthem that these volunteers used to mobilise people in gatherings, which were well-attended, though it did not translate into votes.
Cut to 2024. Kanhaiya, now contesting as a Congress candidate from Northeast Delhi, does not generate as much enthusiasm among his former comrades, even in his alma mater. Apart from ideological reasons, many also feel let down by Kanhaiya’s muted position on issues such as the continuing incarceration of Umar Khalid in a Delhi riots case.
On Monday, Kanhaiya, accompanied by leaders from the Congress’ Delhi unit and Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai from the AAP, filed his nomination after performing a havan, and later took out a roadshow. He also posted a picture of religious leaders of other faiths presenting him a framed portrait of the preamble to the Constitution of India on X (formerly Twitter).
अरदास है कहीं कीर्तन
कहीं रामधुन कहीं आवाहन
विधि भेद का है यह सब रचन
तेरा भक्त तुझको बुला रहा
तू ही राम है तू रहीम है
तू करीम कृष्ण खुदा हुआ
तू ही वाहे गुरु तू येशु मसीह
हर नाम में तू समा रहा
आज नामांकन से पहले सभी धर्मों के गुरुओं ने मुझे संविधान की प्रस्तावना भेंट कर मेरे… pic.twitter.com/qHpRDS8Ayi
— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyakumar) May 6, 2024
Reasons for indifference
After much internal debates, the DSF, which had taken the lead in organising Kanhaiya’s 2019 battle, has decided to join a forum of students, faculty, and alumni from Delhi University, JNU, Ambedkar University, Delhi to campaign for INDIA bloc candidates in Delhi.
“The decision was taken keeping the larger threats being faced by the country. It is not about an individual but safeguarding our institutions and democracy. Just like Kanhaiya, we are also campaigning for other INDIA bloc candidates in Delhi. We have given a call to all JNU students to join us. On a daily basis, 10-15 volunteers including those who have responded to our call are going to northeast Delhi to campaign for Kanhaiya,” said DSF’s Briti Kar, a councillor in the JNU students union, who’s pursuing a PhD in Economics.
Sudhansu Shekhar, the president of NSUI’s JNU unit, acknowledged that the excitement that Kanhaiya’s candidature had generated on the campus in 2019 was missing this time. However, he also pointed out that many are still supporting Kanhaiya, by working as part of the joint forum, if not directly as part of his campaign like last time.
“In the past, on the campus, Kanhaiya’s politics was against NSUI also, but we don’t have any issue if they (Left) help him now. After all, if he wins, he will be a Congress MP in the Lok Sabha. But the fact is they don’t want to ally with us in JNU. Even in the last JNU union elections, we wanted to tie up to send out a larger message of solidarity against the ABVP. That did not happen,” Shekhar said, underlining the dynamics holding back a spirited participation of the past participants in Kanhaiya’s campaign.
While the campus indifference towards Kanhaiya’s candidature this time is evident, it is still being discussed in hushed tones, barring a few exceptions. For instance, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Delhi president of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, the SP’s students’ wing, put out a Facebook post on 21 April, saying the “lack of warmth and enthusiasm (regarding Kanhaiya’s candidature) compared to 2019 is troubling me”.
Yadav, who was once a member of the AISF of the CPI, is among those who quit the students body over purported differences with Kanhaiya when he was still there.
Speaking to ThePrint, Yadav identified three reasons behind the contrast between Kanhaiya’s 2019 and 2024 campaign.
“Firstly, the Left student activists and academia saw in Kanhaiya a big hope. He was seen to be one of them. Many had taken leave without pay to join his campaign. But now that he is a part of the Congress, the same cannot be expected as the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties are seen from a prejudiced point of view by many of them. Second, his stand on Umar Khalid backfired. Thirdly, sections of NSUI also resist too much involvement of Left forums considering how former Left leaders end up getting influential posts in the Congress,” he said.
Kanhaiya’s meteoric rise after getting embroiled in the JNU sedition case is well-documented, but what is lesser known is the internal divisions in the AISF that it caused. Apart from Yadav, Jayant Jigyasu, now a national spokesperson with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), had also quit the AISF in 2018 over, among other reasons, his differences with Kanhaiya whom he had accused of “betraying the JNU community”.
Later, these differences also played out in Begusarai, where some of these disgruntled CPI activists, including from JNU, campaigned against Kanhaiya, endorsing Tanweer Hassan of the RJD, which is also instrumental in ensuring that the Congress not fielding the former JNUSU president from Begusarai this time.
Speaking to ThePrint, Jigyasu played down his differences with Kanhaiya, saying they share mutual respect. “What matters is the INDIA bloc. This is no time to focus on personal differences, or hold grudges from the past. The fact is we are busy campaigning for our candidates in Bihar. Left activists are busy supporting their candidates wherever they are contesting.” .
Indeed, the political choices that he’s made over the last five years has significantly eroded the radical edge that Kanhaiya represented. Even before Khalid’s arrest in September 2020, Kanhaiya had drawn criticism for his silence on the arrests of activists in connection with the Delhi riots. He had blamed his silence then on the restrictions on political and other activities owing to the Covid pandemic.
2019 campaign
The summer of 2019 was different though. Before stepping out to file his nomination in 2019, Kanhaiya had posted a picture of him embracing his mother Meena Devi and Fatima Nafees, the mother of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing from the campus in October 2016.
The filing of nomination was preceded by a roadshow attended by hundreds, including celebrities such as Swara Bhasker and civil rights activists such as Teesta Setalvad, former JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid. Lyricist Javed Akhtar, actors Shabana Azmi, Prakash Raj, rights activist Aruna Roy, historian Rajmohan Gandhi, stand up comedian Kunal Kamra were among others who had descended in Begusarai to canvass for him.
Arrangements, ranging from lodging to food, were made for the volunteers by Kanhaiya’s family to stay in his village. After a meal of daal, rice, and chokha, they used to fan out across Begusarai on matadors for intense campaigning up to 12 hours at a stretch, recalled a member of his 2019 team, adding that on a given day at least 200 of them were out on the streets.
A war room was also created at Kanhaiya’s place where data analysis used to take place. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, recalled that Kanhaiya himself had played an active role in getting together his own team comprising people from the universities and academia, “recognising the CPI’s organisational weaknesses and outdated ways of functioning”.
“This time as well he reached out to many of the campus organisations. But the response, of course, has been different,” the former volunteer said.
Dilemma & road ahead
With Kanhaiya shifting his political allegiance, the debate, this time, among the current student activists in JNU was about “how to characterise the Congress”. After all, the DSF, following Kanhaiya’s decision to join the Congress, had issued a statement, saying it was the Congress’ “inability” to lead an effective opposition against the Centre that was contributing to the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
To be sure, the approach of the Left towards the Congress has seen many shifts over the decades. In other words, the dilemma of the DSF, and other Left organisations, on the question of getting involved, and to what extent, in Kanhaiya’s 2024 campaign has a larger historical context too.
But some are not in favour of these theoretical differences to take precedence for the “larger interest” of the country’. Among them is Prasenjit Bose, former convenor of the CPI(M) research cell who was expelled from the party in 2012 for opposing its decision to support the presidential bid of Pranab Mukherjee. He is among the notable faces who are aiding Kanhaiya’s campaign efforts in 2024 just like in 2019.
“In 2019, the combined vote share of the AAP and the Congress was less than that of the BJP in this constituency. But when it comes to the assembly segment-wise numbers in the northeast constituency, and even the ward-wise count of votes in the 2022 municipal polls, the AAP-Congress combine trumps the BJP. So the coordination between Congress and AAP workers will be key for him to win,” Bose, a JNU alumnus himself, told ThePrint.
A look at Kanhaiya’s activities over the past few days makes it clear that his efforts are also geared towards that purpose. On Sunday, he addressed an AAP workers’ convention and gatherings of Residents’ Welfare Associations in the Burari assembly segment.
आज दिल्ली के मुख्यमंत्री @ArvindKejriwal जी के आवास पर उनकी पत्नी @KejriwalSunita जी से मुलाकात की।
तानाशाही के इस दौर में वे जिस बहादुरी के साथ चेहरे पर मुस्कान लिए डटे हुए हैं वो वाकई प्रेरणा दायक है।
इस लड़ाई में हम हर कदम उनके साथ हैं। लोकतंत्र को बचाने की ये लड़ाई हम सब… pic.twitter.com/xGHzI8aRNi
— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyakumar) May 1, 2024
Last week, he also attended a meeting, at the residence of Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai, of Congress and AAP office-bearers for “better coordination” among its workers on the ground. On 1 May, he met AAP MP Sanjay Singh and Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and later echoed AAP’s campaign theme — ‘jail ka jawab vote se (vote is the answer to jail)’.
(Edited by Tony Rai)