I did not see any stories here about the Indian Parliamentary elections. In a scary time when Indian religious right has taken over the Indian government in the last elections and running these elections on Nationalism and Jingoism, there is a slim ray of hope in the shape of Dr. Kanhaiya Kumar who is running for Member of Parliament from a constituency named Begusarai from the state of Bihar.
A quick background —
BJP — Bharatiya Janata Party is the current party in power. They were voted in with a considerable majority in the last elections. The party works hand in glove with RSS (even though not publicly) a militant extreme right Hindu organization. RSS works on the premise that India needs to be a fascist Hindu nation (as opposed to the secular socialist republic it is today and as per the constitution).
Narendra Modi — He is the current Prime Minister of India. He and his trusted right hand (Amit Shah) have been running the government for the past four and half years. The unemployment is at a 45 year high. Indian liberal voices were murdered by the right wing terrorists. Cow vigilante groups have been lynching Muslims and backward caste people in the name of Hinduism. The government also got involved in the student politics of some universities which caused the suicide of a student.
The Student leader —
A doctoral student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the top university in India became the president of the student union in 2015 (a year after BJP came in to power). He was the member of the student wing (AISF) of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
In November of 2016 he was arrested and charged over an event organised by some students at the Jawaharlal Nehru university campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. He was jailed on charges of sedition for leading anti-national chants in the event. He was then released and his speech at JNU (mostly in hindi but close captioned in this video) catapulted him to national prominence.
Since then he has been a symbol of resistance against the policies and views of the present government in various speeches and interviews. He is a naturally gifted orator and is a fighter for equality in a nation where nearly 50 families own 70% of the wealth of the nation. It does help that he is from a poor family and has been fighting since then for the rights of the downtrodden.
Present parliamentary elections
While the BJP and media houses with them have painted him to be an anti-national element, the young and the activists around the country have rallied around him. His videos on YouTube standing up for the poor and fearlessly speaking against the present government are some of the most watched videos in India.
For the past year and a half (since finishing his PhD in African studies) Dr. Kanhaiya Kumar went back to his village in the backward state of Bihar and has been working with the locals. CPI named him the candidate for Member of Parliament from Begusarai (his home district). In a complete surprise the opposition coalition instead of making this election a head to head between BJP and Kanhaiya placed a veteran Muslim candidate who got nearly 30% of the votes last cycle as their candidate.
While his opponents tried to play the religion and caste cards to get elected, with the help of volunteers from JNU and activists from all over the country, Kanhaiya ran an inspirational race reaching out to the rural corners of his constituency. He also crowd funded his election and raised the maximum allowed 70 Lakh (7 Million) rupees which was collected within three days.
Here is to hoping that his voice of reason will reach the Parliament and revive my hope for the future of India. The election for Begusarai is done and initial indications are that it is very tight. The results will be declared on May 23rd. Have my fingers crossed.
The slogans that he chanted at JNU and then at many events after thats called “aazaadi” which means freedom has become the anthem for the resistance. The following is a version (with CC) of the song
