English Translation: Full

Text of Kanhaiya
Kumars Electrifying
Speech at JNU
BY KANHAIYA KUMAR ON 04/03/2016

The JNU Student Union presidents speech after being released

from jail was carried live by most news TV channels and
displaced Prime Minister Modis parliament speech in newspaper
headlines on Friday morning. Chitra Padmanabhan has translated
the text into English for The Wire.
From this platform on behalf of all of you, as JUNUSU president I take this opportunity of
the medias presence to thank and salute the people of this country. I want to thank all the
people across the world, academicians and students, who have stood with JNU. I salute
them (lal salaam).
I also wish to acknowledge and thank all the people standing firm with the struggle, who
are demanding justice for Rohith Vemula, be they from the media or civil society, political
or non-political. I salute them. (lal salaam).
I especially wish to thank the worthies of this country sitting in parliament who claim it is
they who decide what is right and what is wrong. Thank you to them, their police and also
to the media channels [resounding cheers] In our parts they say, so what if ones name
was vilified, it got one some publicity! At least they gave space to JNU on primetime even if
it was to vilify it.
I have no rancour against anyone none whatsoever against the ABVP [Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad, student wing of the BJP]. You know why? (crowd roars

why?) Because the ABVP on our campus is actually more rational than the ABVP outside
the campus. I have one suggestion for all those people who consider themselves political
pundits kindly watch the recording of the last presidential debate to see the state the
ABVP candidate was reduced to. When we decimated the sharpest ABVP intellect there is
in the country, which happens to be in the ABVP of JNU, you can draw your own
conclusions about what awaits you in the rest of the country. There is no ill-will against
ABVP because we are truly democratic; we truly believe in the constitution, and that is
why we look at the ABVP not as enemies but as the opposition. Rest assured, my friend, I
will not indulge in any witch-hunt against you for the simple reason that one has to be
worthy enough to be hunted.
JNU has shown the way. JNU stands unshakeable today to state what is right is right and
what is wrong is wrong. The best thing about this protest is that it is spontaneous. I am
stressing this aspect because everything on their part was planned.
We have unstinting faith in the constitution of this country, the laws of this country and
the judicial process of this country. We also believe that the only truth is change, and we
are standing here rooting for change. This change will come about, make no mistake
We have unstinting faith in the constitution. With all our alertness we stand fully behind
the articles of faith declared in the preamble socialism, secularism, equality.
I dont want to give a speech here; I want to tell you about my experience. Earlier I studied
more, endured the system less. This time I studied less and endured the system more.
Since JNU has a tradition of research I can say I have primary data, first hand information!
First things first I dont want to say anything about the judicial process. I have said just
one thing and all the people of this country who truly believe in the constitution and
want to bring Babasahebs dreams to fruition would have taken the hint. I dont want to say
anything about the matter that is sub judice.
So the honourable prime minister has tweeted. He says, Satyamev Jayate [truth will
prevail] (laughter). My reply is as follows: honourable prime minister, I have serious
ideological differences with you but Satyamev Jayate is not your slogan; it is the motto of
the country and the constitution, so I too will happily say Satyamev Jayate.
Truth will emerge victorious.In my village you have become acquainted with my family
these past days we have confidence men at our railway stations trying to trick people into

buying a lucky ring that will give them anything they desire.
We have some policy makers in our country who are cast in the same mould. They say
many things black money will return, har har modi, this killing inflation will come
down, sab ka saath sab ka vikas. Although Indians easily forget such things, the spectacle
this time was so huge that we are unable to forget the slogans.
Nevertheless, attempts are on to make sure that these slogans are forgotten. How? Stop the
[money] of research fellows so that they have to beseech you to restore their fellowship.
Then you agree but on the condition that the remuneration will stay at the same level of Rs
5000 or Rs 8000. Who speaks out against this? JNU, who else?.
If you speak out against this undemocratic regime, what will its cyber cell do? It will send
adoctored video and insults, and the condoms in your dustbin will be counted too. But
make no mistake, this is a critical moment and we need to understand that the attack on
JNU is a planned attack because they want to delegitimise the Occupy UGC movement. It
is a planned attack because they want to discredit and destroy the struggle to get justice for
Rohith Vemula. You are running this JNU issue on prime time, ex-RSS worthy
[Subramanian Swamy], because you want the people of this country to forget the prime
ministers assurance that he would put 15 lakh rupees in their individual bank accounts. A
word of friendly caution it is not easy to get admission in JNU and it certainly is not easy
to make JNU students forget. We will remind you repeatedly that every time a government
has turned oppressor, JNU has raised the voice of protest
Dont play soldiers against students
You cannot simply dilute our struggle by saying that on the other side of the picture are the
countrys youths who are dying on the border. I salute these heroic figures. I have a
question for a BJP leader who made a statement in Parliament. (I will not name him for I
learnt one thing in prison, where the fight is ideological, one should not give individuals
needless publicity). On the floor of the Lok Sabha this BJP leader thundered that the
countrys youth are dying at the border.
I want to ask that leader is that youth a brother to you? The thousands of farmers who
are committing suicide, who grow grain for us and our youth on the border; farmers who
are fathers to these youths do you have anything at all to say about that, about them? I
want to tell that leader the farmer who works in the field is my father, and it is my brother

who joins the army. By erecting this binary dont you go creating a false debate in the
country because those who die for the country die within the country and also on the
borders of this country.
My question [to the BJP leader] is this: by standing up in parliament who exactly are
targeting with your politics? Who will take responsibility for those who are dying? Those
who fight are not responsible; the ones who make them fight are the ones who are
accountable. Who takes responsibility for this war, who makes people fight? See how my
father is dying, how my brother is dying. I put this question to the two-bit primetime
anchors who create this binary all the time.
Is it wrong to seek freedom (azaadi) from the ills that plague our country today? They ask
belligerently who do you want freedom from? Has India enslaved somebody?
My answer to them is NO. So isnt it obvious we are not seeking freedom from India? We
are not seeking freedom FROM India but IN India. There is a difference. We are certainly
not issuing a call for freedom from the British; that freedom has already been wrested by
the people of our country.
What prison was like
Now I come to my experience in prison. Some of the policemen asked me why we keep
sayinglal salam, lal salam. I should perhaps make it clear this was not part of the
investigation! The policemen would come to give me my meals and to take me for my
medical check-up. I being a JNU student, more so from Brahmaputra [hostel], how could I
stay without talking? So I struck a conversation with a policemen and discovered he was
just like me. Think who takes up a police job inside a jail someone whose father is
either a farmer or a labourer, someone whose father is from a disadvantaged section. I too
come from one of Indias backward states, Bihar. I too come from a poor family, a farmers
family. By and large it is only those from poor families who join the police. Here I am
talking about policemen of constable, head constable and inspector rank. I have not had
much interaction with the IPS.
So the policeman asked: what is this lal salaam.
I replied: Lal means revolution (kranti).

He: And salaam?

I: It means hail revolution.
The policeman did not get it. I asked him about the slogan Inquilab Zindabad. He said he
knew of it. I told him Inquilab means revolution (kranti) in Urdu. He said ABVP members
also use this slogan (Inquilab Zindabad). I said, do you understand now they are false
revolutionaries, we are the real revolutionaries!
Then the policeman asked me another question: Everything is very cheap for the people of
JNU, right? I asked if the same was not true for him? I asked him if he was paid overtime
(he works 18 hours a day) and he replied in the negative. When asked how he manages he
replied, that same thing which you call corruption?
He gets a uniform allowance of Rs 110. You cant buy even an undergarment with that
amount. All this the policemen volunteered on his own. I explained to him that it is
precisely from this hunger, corruption that we seek freedom.
By then the agitation in Haryana had started and as you know a large part of the Delhi
Police force comes from Haryana. I salute them for they are very hard working. Anyway I
asked the policeman what he thought about reservation. Casteism is not a good thing at
all, he replied. It is precisely from this casteism that we seek freedom, I told him. The
policemen exclaimed: But theres nothing wrong with what you just said, there is nothing
anti-national about it.
Then I asked him one more question: who wields the maximum power in the system?
He looked at his lathi and said, danda (the lathi).
Can you wield your lathi at will, I asked.
No, he admitted. On being asked who has the most power his answer was, the ones issuing
fake tweets!
It is from the Sanghis who tweet false statements that we want freedom, I told him.

The policeman then said, It seems to me that you and I are one the same side. Well,
theres a small problem, I replied.
Now I am not saying this about all journalists because all of them dont get their
remuneration from there. Of course some get their wages only from there, and some after
long years of reporting parliament are making desperate efforts to enter it as well. And
what an atmosphere they have created.
So I told the policeman, Here you and I are having a one-to-one chat and there they
screechDekhiye sansanikhez (Watch this sensational news.)
Shall I tell you something in confidence, asked the policeman. I had decided I would beat
you up when you arrived your name was there on the FIR*. But after talking to you I
now feel like beating them up.
Democracy matters, as does social justice
He said something very important. And through the media here I want to draw the
attention of the entire country to it. This policeman, like me, comes from an ordinary
family; like me, wanted to pursue studies; like me, wanted to understand the systemic ills
of the country and fight against them, wanted to understand the difference between being
literate and educated, yet is working as a policeman. This is where JNU comes in and that
is why you want to suppress JNUs voice to ensure that a poor marginalised individual is
not able to do a PhD because it is clear as day that the poor simply cant afford the lakhs of
rupees needed to pursue a PhD in a private institution.
They want to stifle all the voices that can come together, whether they are standing on the
border, dying on the field or standing tall in struggle in JNU.
You who dont want these voices to come together, I want to remind you of what
Babasaheb said political democracy is not enough. Well, we will establish social
democracy. That is why we speak of the constitution repeatedly. Lenin said, Democracy is
indispensable to socialism. We speak of democracy, freedom of expression, equality and
socialism so that a time may come when the son of a peon and the son of a president can
study together.
This voice of struggle they want to choke. Science says the more you press down, the more

pressure builds up. But then these people have nothing to do with science for studying
science is not the same as being scientific. But if a dialogue could be established with
people who are engaged in the quest to build a climate of scientific temper then we will
surely wrest the freedoms that we are fighting for in this very country: freedom from
hunger and poverty, exploitation and injustice, and securing the rights of Dalits, adivasis,
women and minorities. That we will secure this freedom in this country through this very
constitution, this very parliament and this very judicial process, is our dream. This was the
dream of Babasaheb. And this was the dream that our comrade Rohith dreamed.
Do you see now? You killed one Rohith and tried to crush the movement that emerged in
its wake. See how massive that movement has become.
One more thing I want to say from my prison experience. This is my self-criticism and if
you think it applies to you too then take it in that spirit. We from JNU are refined and
civilised in our speech, but we speak in heavy jargon which the common people of this
country are unable to understand. Its not their fault. They are honest, straightforward and
perfectly capable of understanding. It is we who are unable to explain things to them at
their level. In the end what reaches them? No more prevarication, just sell on OLX (Ab no
more dekhte hai OLX mein bechate hain.) It is critical that we establish a conversation and
debate on this for sale mentality that has been created in this country.
Now let me talk about my prison experience. I got two bowls there one was blue the other
red. I kept looking at the colours and thought to myself that although I am not a believer
in destiny, nor do I know god, but surely something good is about to happen in this country
now that these two colours are here together, side by side. The plate looked like our India,
the blue was the blue of the Ambedkarite movement and the red bowl like [the red of
socialism] . I thought if this unity were to be created in this country, then no more
prevarication, we will send those who put everything on sale packing. Those who auction
off everything we dont want. We will put in power those who can ensure the protection of
the law for everybody. We will make the slogan of sabka saath, sabka vikas a living
reality.
Modis and RSSs agenda
Today, when our honourable PM (I have to be respectful, no, or they will doctor this too!)
spoke about Stalin and Khrushchev, I had an irresistible urge to enter the television, tug at
his suit and say, Modi ji, why not talk a little about Hitler too? If not Hitler, then Mussolini

at least whose black cap was worn by your Guruji? Golwalkar ji had gone to meet him
and had been advised to fashion the definition of Indianness on the German model.
Now I come to something very personal. I spoke to my mother after three months. When I
was in JNU I never kept in regular touch. After going to prison I felt one should keep in
regular touch; I advise you to do the same. When I spoke to my mother I asked her: So you
took a dig at Modiji? She replied that it was not a dig at him. To make fun of people is
their prerogative. We just express our pain those who understand, cry, and those who
dont, laugh. My mother said, It was my pain which made me say Modiji is also a son to a
mother, my son has been falsely accused in a sedition case. So when he talks about mann
ki baat, why not also talk about maa ki baat (mothers plight)?
What words of comfort could I offer her? Whatever is happening in this country shows a
dangerous pathology. Here I am not talking about one party or one media channel, or
only about soldiers I am visualising the entire country. What will be the face of this
country when it is emptied of its people? That is why it is important to salute all those
people who have stood up in support of JNU. They understand the importance of JNU
60% of its students are women. Moreover, despite any shortcomings it may have, JNU is
one of the few institutions which implements the reservation policy; where it doesnt we
fight to ensure it does so.
Also the people who come here I have not told you until now, my family lives on 3000
rupees. Would I be able to pursue a PhD in any big university? So when a serious offensive
is mounted against JNU, the people who are standing up for it are also being tarred with
the same brush (in saying this I am not expressing sympathies for any particular political
party, for I have my own ideological path). Sitaram Yechury has been charged with
sedition, Rahul Gandhi, D. Raja and Kejriwal too. Even those from the media who are
speaking up for JNU actually they are not speaking up for JNU, they are stating the truth
as truth and falsehood as falsehood are being hounded and threatened.
Where is this self-proclaimed nationalism coming from? I was asked by some in prison
whether I really shouted those slogans. I said, yes, and I will do so again.
My question is, Are you [those in power] able to see the difference or has your rationality
been destroyed. Is it a good thing to lose ones rationality so soon because 69% of the
people of this country voted against this kind of mindset? Only 31% voted for you and
among them were some who were taken in by your slogans. Some of the people you lured

with your har harslogan can only think of the price of arhar [dal] these days.
So dont delude yourself that your victory is forever. If you repeat a hundred times that
the sun is the moon, will the sun become the moon? Certainly not. It will remain what is
the sun even if you repeat your lie a 1000 times.
The beauty of it is that in parliament they table a call attention motion, but outside the
Lok Sabha across the country they revert to the distract attention motion draw people
away from their genuine problems and entrap them in ever new agendas. Here the Occupy
UGC movement was going apace and comrade Rohith was killed. As soon as we raised our
voice for him came the new salvo witness the biggest betrayal of the nation, look
carefully at the epicentre of sedition. This agenda too will lose steam.
So they are planning their next move Ram mandir, what else. Let me tell you about a
conversation I had with a policeman just before stepping out of prison.
He: do you believe in religion?
I: I need to know about religion to be a believer.
He: You must have been born in some family?
I: Coincidentally, I was born in a Hindu family
He: So do you know something about your religion?
I: From the little I know I can say that God created this earth and is present in every little
speck. What do you say?
He: Absolutely right
I: Some people want to create something for God. What do you have to say about it?!
He: Height of madness.
You cannot dupe the people endlessly with an agenda that has run its course. Your

duplicitous game helped you gain from 80 to 180 seats once, but not anymore, for the axis
has shifted. But still they will not give up their efforts to distract peoples attention. They
dont want the people to raise genuine issues.
All of you sitting here you feel as if you have been assaulted. True, but this is not the first
time. I want to draw your attention to a cover story on JNU by (Subramaniam) Swamyji in
the RSS mouthpiece Organiser. Now I have full faith in democracy. If my friends in the
ABVP are listening, I request them to bring Swamyji here so that we can debate the issue.
If through logic he can prove that JNU should be shut down for four months, I will agree
with him wholeheartedly. If not, I would request him to leave the country and live outside
as he has done on earlier occasions.
There is just so much of planning behind these attacks. Maybe you being inside the campus
could not see. There was a plan from day one. They dont even think to change their
posters. The same posters with the same content used by the Hindu Kranti Sena are used
by ABVP and ex-armymen. What it means is that all these things are being planned in
Nagpur. This is no spontaneous surge, my friends. There is but one overarching aim:
wherever the voice of protest emerges in this country, choke it; whenever it seems people
might start thinking about their fundamental problems, distract them; wherever the voice
of protest emerges in this JNU campus, be it of Anirban [Bhattacharya] or Umar [Khalid],
be it Ashutosh. or anyone among you, to brand it anti-national and delegitimise JNU.
But I say to them, you will not be able to suppress this struggle, this protest for the more
you try to repress us, the faster we will bounce back on our feet to stand our ground.
This is a long struggle and we have to carry it forward without stopping, without bending,
without pausing for breath. WE will stand united against divisive forces like ABVP within
the campus or the BJP and the RSS outside the campus who are trying to bring the country
to the edge of destruction. JNU will stand united against them; as history shall bear
witness. The struggle that was launched with the Occupy UGC movement, the struggle that
Rohith Vemula waged, and the struggle that you and so many peace-loving and progressive
people in the country have launched that struggle we shall wage and win.
Thanking everybody who has been part of this struggle and appealing to them to walk by
our side, I will end here
Thank you

Inquilab Zindabad!
Rashtra ekta zindabad! (long live national unity)
Samajik nyay zindabad! (long live social justice)
[*After the policeman mentioned seeing Kanhaiyas name on the FIR, Kanhaiya
interjected: Before the FIR our names had come on the ABVP complaint, they were noted
in the FIR]