Many top politicians of today started off as student leaders. But the halo thrust upon Kanhaiya Kumar may wither away soon as he lacks organisational support.
The latest enfant terrible of Indian politics, an anarchist who threatens to destroy the settled order of national discourse, the Johnny-come-lately who is upstaging stalwarts of many hues, a flash in the pan whose media longevity won't be much longer than the stubble he sports on his face - Kanhaiya Kumar is probably all that and more. Just as so many are competing to run him down, there are probably more extolling his virtues and talent, asserting he is India's new Brown Hope, the
Kanhaiya, who, like his legendary ancestor, has arrived to battle evil and establish a "kingdom of the good".
The JNUSU President, a boyish orator with a bedraggled look, appears to have swept a section of the middle class and the predictable segment of the media off their feet. Last week, an Opposition MP approached me in the Central Hall of parliament pleading for help to get an appointment with the new middle class hero. I admonished him saying it was beneath his dignity to make a beeline for a man who has achieved nothing of consequence except to spend a few days behind bars. But the former minister was unfazed. "He is my hero. Did you hear his speech that day? I haven't heard anything like that in decades," he continued to exult.
What explains this Kanhaiya-mania that the national capital and its surrounding areas are gripped with? In recent times, the middle class seems to be giving vent to its myriad frustrations by latching on to real or potential leaders, bestowing them with larger-than-life characteristics. The disillusionment with party politics has resulted in individual charisma acquiring a fatal charm, irrespective of ideological hue. It is the same craving for a "hero" that led the voters of Delhi to repose overwhelming faith in a former tax official-turned-anti-corruption-crusader and anoint him Chief Minister at the head of a ramshackle party.
What was Arvind Kejriwal's USP? He connected with the underprivileged, spoke their language and acted against political orthodoxy. As Chief Minister of Delhi, he sat on
dharna despite the bitter January cold and blinding rain over the utterly irrelevant issue of transferring two policemen! Through all such antics, he successfully projected the image of being a
bechara (hapless person). From time to time, the public is infatuated with a Raj Kapoor-like
bechara in politics. And that is precisely the image Kanhaiya Kumar is trying to convey.
Kanhaiya Kumar, released on February 4 after 21 days in jail, addresses students at JNU. (PTI photo)
But unlike Kejriwal, Kanhaiya is ideologically oriented. He belongs to a political family of Bihar, which has a background in the Communist Party of India (CPI). In JNU, he is firmly a part of the Left-wing students' movement. No wonder a former JNU students' leader, current CPI(M) General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury, has declared that Kanhaiya will campaign for the Left in the forthcoming West Bengal Assembly elections, although the man himself is yet to confirm this.
Many important political leaders of contemporary India have emerged from the students' movement, be it the Nav Niram agitation in Gujarat and Bihar in the early 1970s, or the anti-Emergency struggles of 1975 to 1977. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, for instance, was President of the Delhi University Students' Union when the Emergency was clamped and he was sent to jail for 19 months. In Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sushil Kumar Modi and others of their generation in the Patna University Students' Union were similarly put behind bars in 1975. Their sacrifices catapulted them to leadership positions in the immediate aftermath of the Emergency and they all remain major political leaders to date.
Even earlier, the Naxalite movement in West Bengal universities threw up a galaxy of student leaders (most notably Ashim Chatterjee or Kaka) but they failed to remain politically active for long. Some of them were picked up by the police and never heard of again; others "sold out", became informers and were rehabilitated in discreet government jobs or quietly sent off to British or American universities. Mrs Indira Gandhi and her associates like Siddhartha Shankar Ray in West Bengal effectively snuffed out the most serious ideological challenge to the Indian state that has been mounted hitherto.
But can Kanhaiya be categorised in their league? Despite his Left-wing idealism and apparent commitment to a nebulous notion called
Azaadi, he lacks a movement of his own. He will soon discover that his JNUSU comrades may merrily play footsie with "revolution" but their eyes are firmly set on the Civil Services or equivalent private sector jobs. If Kanhaiya follows the path of conventional politics, joining established political parties, he will have to go through the grind like, say, Lalu Prasad or Sitaram Yechury or Arun Jaitley for that matter had to do. And thus the "uniqueness" of Kanhaiya Kumar will be lost in the sea of conventional politics.
In any case, established parties will soon advise him to tone down his
azaadi brand of rhetoric. The term does not have a positive resonance in most of India because of its close association with anti-India and pro-Pakistan elements in the Kashmir Valley. It is one thing to be hyperbolic within the confines of the JNU Campus, always known for its extreme form of Bohemian politics that has never connected with the wider population. Even Delhi's other universities, DU or Jamia have been immune to the kind of Left-wing extremism which Lenin described as "infantile disorder".
Because he was arrested on the charge of sedition, in the eyes of a section of the youth, Kanhaiya has acquired a halo today. There is little doubt that he will be invited by students' bodies across the country and widely applauded for his simplicity, oratory and ideological commitment. But the halo that has been suddenly thrust upon him will dissipate as soon as the novelty wears off, and Kanhaiya fails to build an organisation to push him forward. As part of the conventional Left, he may become a showpiece for some months, but the straitjacketed, neo-Stalinist organisational structure of Communist parties will never allow an individual talent to grow bigger than the collective wisdom of their gerontocrats. If in doubt about this formulation, Kanhaiya would do well to ask DP Tripathi (firebrand left-wing JNUSU leader of his time and current Rajya Sabha MP of the NCP).
The only thing remarkable about Kanhaya is that he has come as another reminder of the growing disenchantment with conventional politics and politicians. For some years, NGOs seemed to offer hope of a non-corrupt leadership. But that too has withered away. Hence the experiment with new "finds" - be that Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal or Kanhaiya Kumar. Clearly, however, they will either move into oblivion or opt out of conventional politics or end up as temporary showpieces of student protest. The nebulous, nondescript and utterly unacceptable slogan of
azaadi in a free country will finally be rejected by those who are shouting such meaningless slogans today, mesmerised by a student leader's simplicity of appeal.
(Dr. Chandan Mitra is a journalist, currently Editor of The Pioneer Group of Publications. He is also BJP MP of the Rajya Sabha.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.