New Delhi: JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he alleged that “emergency-like” situation has been created in all universities and the actual change in the country will not happen by changing “meat” or “videos”.
In an open letter to Modi, Kanhaiya was referring to the Dadri lynching incident where a man was lynched on suspicion that his family stored and ate beef at their house and surfacing of allegedly doctored videos about the controversial February 9 event at JNU.
“Modi ji, the country won’t change by changing the meat or the video. The nation will be transformed when the condition of its people are improved. Under your regime, things have only gone from bad to worse. Youth and students elected you with high hopes,” he said in the letter.
“It seems that a situation of emergency has been created in every university. Is this the situation that you were promising when you were chanting the slogans of ‘achche din’ across the length and breadth of the nation?,” he said.
Kanhaiya is out on bail in a sedition case in connection with an event on JNU campus in February against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
“Had you delivered development in the last two years, you would not have to spend crores of rupees to advertise it. I question you here as a student. You spend Rs 200 crore on advertisements, but you don’t have Rs 99 crore for non-NET scholarships for the research scholars,” the letter said.
“No new jobs have been created, farmers are killing themselves in desperation and terror of moneylenders, the poor are increasingly becoming poorer, students can’t afford to study, those who do make it to the various universities face caste-based humiliation and discrimination.
“And if by some miracle they manage to save themselves from such vile acts then their fellowships are stopped in order to deter them pursuing higher studies,” it added. PTI GJS