I heard Kanhaiya’s speech and it took me back to my college days when student politics wasn’t as sophisticated and oiled. When mediamen & women had not become brokers. It wasn’t limited to ideological confrontation but also involved desi katta, swords, gupties, hockey sticks, crude bombs and Rampuriya chakoos. In the midst of all this there were speeches and sloganeering by students leaders and their mentors from either Congress, ABVP or Leftist parties. Those speeches were mostly about how to make university a better place for students. Only leaders from Leftist parties used to gives speeches which were about an utopian social engineering and freedom from the state. Listening to Kanhaiya, I felt as if I was listening to a pop-version of speeches I heard many decades ago. Barring Kanhaiya’s personal mannerisms and dialect it was straight out of a communist template.
It appears that Communists have a ‘speech template’ and all their leaders are given training in speaking the same way. The strategy is simple: take an unattainable, high moral ground, raise the concerns over all evils of the society but never present a plan to eradicate these evils. In any society there are always some people who are perpetually dissatisfied with everything. To an extent that even if you give them Azadi, they will find problems in that also. From my student days until Kanhaiya, they have been fooling people without giving any solutions. Ask Kanhaiya how will he get us Azadi from poverty and Manuvaad and Brahmanism and I am sure he will shift the goalpost. This is why I do not subscribe to Communism.
I won’t go into details of Kanhaiya’s speech as it’s a function of his political agenda but I’d request him not to mention Manu Smriti without studying and understanding it. Manu Smriti doesn’t speak of caste system. It talks of Varnas. Var means choice. One choses to be Brahmin and Shudra as per his knowledge, wisdom and deeds. Manu Smriti allows people to change their Varna, which means a Shudra can become Brahmin and vice versa. Also, its time communists stop using Manu Smriti to exploit uneducated, poor people. Their strategy is to use innocent people to further their agenda and which is why I do not agree with Communists.
I’d also advise him and his supporters not to talk of freedom of speech as JNU is the last place where dissent and FoE is practised. People with ‘If you aren’t anti-state, you are an enemy’ kind of attitude must not give us sermons on FoE. FoE is part of Indian’s native intelligence. By native I mean Hindus like Kanhaiya and me. It’s native Hindu civilisation’s strength and openness that Muslims and Christians are accepted in mainstream culture. Dear Kanhaiya, if you chose to blame one hard working chaiwala for all the evils, just because he represents Hindu aspirations, it shows your lack of understanding. It shows you have thoughts but your mind is not Azad (free). To understand what I am saying you may have to consult Manu Smriti.
Another reason I do not subscribe to Communism of Kanahiya is that they profess revolution, seek freedom and practice violence. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been killed in Naxal infested areas (almost 50% of India) and millions remain poor and oppressed. Your comrades do not allow TV in tribal areas as it can instill greed and adivasis would want to make money and the only antidote to your poison is money. Communism is not an ideology, its an economic system but mentors of Kanhaiya fool people by projecting it as an ideology. Liberalism and even Fascism are ideologies but Communism is not. That’s why I don’t subscribe to this sinister politics.
Communism is really good as a text book material. In practice, it destroys societies, their spirit. Just look around the world and you will find that wherever communism reached, people lost their freedom. Their voice. Their lives. First it makes you angry, then hapless and then a victim. It does not allow dissent or debate. Have you ever heard of one instance where comrades openly conflicted? Communism’s only contribution is that it has encouraged poverty, mediocrity and violence. I shun such hypocrisy.
Dalai Lama is a living example of how much Azadi communism allows. He has been living in free India as a refugee, away from his motherland, because of Communism. West Bengal is another living example of how communist ideology destroyed the entire region. Today, Calcutta is a a monument of poverty and failure. I can bet you will never meet anyone who has been benefitted by communism or terrorism. In modern india, Communists have acted as intellectual terrorists.
So people who are too excited and want to portray Kanhaiya as a hero or a youth icon aren’t in love with Communist ideology. They have nothing to do with JNU. They don’t want any Azadi. They are supporting him because they don’t want Modi to grow. Because Modi means Azadi from corruption, sycophancy and middlemen. Even Radia will vouch that most of our media men and women don’t want this Azadi. Hence, Kejriwal. Kejriwal fails. Hence, Kanhaiya.
It’s as simple as that.
PS: Dear Barkha Dutts, Rajdeep Sardesais and Pritish Nandis, Kanhaiya represents emotions of just a few thousand students of JNU and JNU kind of institutions. Even they will flip once they have to earn bread and butter. India is too big and has millions of real students who actually want Azadi from such negativity, pseudo intellectualism and brokership. Students who want to be proud of their nationality, their constitution, their government, their people and their culture. Kanhaiya does not represent their aspirations. But he most certainly is a tool to further your own political agenda. He is not an youth icon. He is a trained, well funded closet politician like you. By calling him an youth icon, you are insulting millions of Indian youth/students who at this very moment are studying hard and getting prepared to create wealth and repay their motherland by getting her Azadi from poverty and ‘traders of poverty’.Like Kanhiya said, you have understood what I mean.
This article was first published in the author's personal blog.
