Right before his arrest, JNU Student Union’s President, Kanhaiya Kumar gave a speech lashing out at the RSS and the ABVP, accusing them of running an orchestrated campaign.
Kumar categorically said that the student union has full faith in the Indian Constitution and that they do not support any anti-India activity.
The Telegraph translated the entire 21 minute speech in Hindi to English. Here are some excerpts from the speech:
‘We don’t need the certificate of patriotism from the RSS. We don’t need a nationalist certificate from the RSS. We belong to this country. We love this country.’
‘We have full faith in Babasahab (Ambedkar). We have full faith in the Constitution of India. We want to say this very forcefully that if anyone tries to challenge the Constitution, be it the Sanghis, we will not tolerate.
‘Check my mobile phone, friends. Dirty abuses are being hurled at my mother and sister. Which Mother India are you talking about? If my mother is not part of your Mother India, your concept of Mother India is not acceptable to me.’
‘Some media friends told me that JNU runs on taxpayers’ money, on subsidy. Yes, it is right that JNU runs on subsidy. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the society’s collective conscience.’
‘Friends, the situation is very serious. Under no circumstances does the JNUSU (the JNU students’ union) support any violence, any terrorist, any terror incident and any anti-India activity. I want to reiterate that the JNUSU strongly condemns slogans of “Pakistan zindabad” raised by some unidentified people.’
‘They are calling us ‘Afzal Guru’s dogs’. They are calling us ‘children of jihadis’. If the Constitution gives us the right to be citizens, then is it not an attack on our constitutional right when they call our parents dogs?’
‘Their nation worship ends with an India-Pakistan cricket match.’
Here is the video of the entire speech.