In crisp ‘thank you’ note to Deepika Padukone, Kanhaiya Kumar makes a prophecy
Deepika Padukone’s visit to the university had drawn a sharp reaction on social media.
Kanhaiya Kumar, the former Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union leader who was back in the campus Wednesday evening, tweeted a crisp ‘thank you’ note to actor Deepika Padukone for her expression of solidarity with the students. Kanhaiya Kumar also praised the actor for her courage in visiting the university, the first celebrity to do so.
“You might be abused or trolled today, but history will remember you for your courage and standing by the idea of India,” Kanhaiya Kumar said in a tweet past Wednesday midnight.
And she was.
Deepika Padukone’s visit to the university had drawn a sharp reaction on social media. There were also many calls including some from BJP leaders for boycotting ‘Chhapaak’, her upcoming movie that was inspired by the real-life story of Delhi’s acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal.
Watch: Deepika Padukone visits JNU to support students protesting violence
At JNU, Deepika Padukone had shared the stage with Kanhaiya Kumar and student leaders of the university when Kumar was raising slogans. Before she left, Deepika Padukone also met JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh who was allegedly assaulted by masked goons who had reportedly entered the campus on Sunday evening.
Sunday evening’s attack had left over 30 students injured, many of them beaten by the masked assailants who were armed with sticks, rods and hammers. The JNU students’ union leaders have alleged the assailants were linked to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of the ruling BJP’s ideological mentor, RSS.
Kanhaiya Kumar had shot into limelight in 2016 when he was arrested by Delhi Police on charges that he had raised slogans calling for independence for Kashmir at the campus. Kumar, who was charged with sedition, had spent nearly three weeks in Tihar jail on a controversial sedition charge. It was around this time that the BJP leaders and right-wing supporters had come up with the term, ‘tukde tukde gang’ to accuse Left-backed outfits and their supporters of a mindset that calls for the dismemberment of India.
It was at the roaring welcome that Kanhaiya Kumar received after his release from jail that he had turned the accusation that he raised aazadi slogans on its head, underscoring that he had never “asked for freedom from India, but freedom within India”.
Kumar was the CPI’s candidate against BJP’s Giriraj Singh from Begusarai in Bihar in last year’s national elections but lost by a staggering margin of four lakh votes against the veteran politician.
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