No coercive steps against Umar Khalid till Friday, HC tells JNU

The Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) from taking any coercive steps against the student-activist Umar Khalid till Friday.

"JNU shall not take any coercive action against the petitioner (Khalid)," Justice Siddharth Mridul said and listed the matter for Friday for further hearing.

Khalid was rusticated and fined by a university panel in connection with a 2016 incident when anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at an event.

Justice Siddharth Mridul's order came while hearing Khalid's plea challenging the university's order which has imposed a fine against him.

The court also issued notice to JNU and others and sought the response on the student's plea.

Khalid's advocate told the court that former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar has also approached the court and his matter is listed for Friday for further hearing.

Kumar in his plea has sought quashing of the order passed by JNU through its Chief Proctor on July 4.

JNU on July 4's order held Kumar and others guilty under clause of Discipline and Proper Conduct of Students of JNU and fined them.

The order has been issued based on the report by a high-level enquiry committee that was set up on February 11, 2016.

An enquiry found student-activist Umar Khalid, along with Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya, guilty in the February 2016 episode in which a group of young men allegedly raised "anti-national" slogans.

It had also recommended rustication of Umar Khalid apart from imposing financial penalty on 13 other students for violation of disciplinary norms.

Kumar, a member of the Communist Party of India's student wing, was the President of the varsity's student union that year.

The three were accused -- though none yet chargesheeted by police -- of raising slogans against the integrity of India during a poetry-reading gathering of students at Sabarmati Dhaba inside the JNU campus on February 9, 2016.

Article Source : BS

From Tihar Jail to Pune, Kanhaiya Kumar manages to be the headline

JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Sunday alleged that a BJP supporter had tried to strangle him on a Mumbai-Pune Jet Airways flight. Following the incident, both of them were deplaned and the alleged attacker had been detained by the Mumbai Police.

Hours after the incident, questions about Kumar’s allegation surface, suggesting he was actually involved in a scuffle.

This is not the first time the student leader has been involved in controversies. Ever since his 6-month interimbail in the sedition case, Kumar has made headlines for several reasons. 

Business Standard takes a look at how Kumar has stayed in the headlines after his bail.

Campaigning for Assembly Elections for Left

After his speech at the JNU campus upon his release fromTihar Jail in March that caught the popular imagination, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury had said that Kumar would be campaigning for the party in the ongoing assembly elections. This was later turned down by Kumar stating that he was a student and would like to move on to teaching and had no interest in mainstream politics.

2002 and 1984 riots are different

Kumar said recently that there was a fundamental difference between the riots of 2002, which took place in Gujarat and which happened in 1984. “There is difference between emergency and fascism. During emergency, goons of only one party were engaged into goondaism; in this (fascism) entire state machinery is resorting to goondaism,” he had said, leading to a huge debate over his views.

Critics pointed out that the Congress government had been accused of being complicit in the anti-Sikh pogrom that ravaged Delhi in the wake of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards.

69% of people voted against Modi

During his speech at the JNU, Kumar said that 69% of voters had not chosen Modi as their leader. “I want to remind our government that 69% voted against you. Just 31% voted for you and some of them were caught up in your jumlas,” he said.

Visit to Hyderabad Central University campus

The JNUSU President visited the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) Campus to protest against Rohith Vemula’s suicide. He also met Vemula’s mother during his visit there. His visit to the campus had led to increased security and media being barred from entering it. Read More.