JNU Student Umar Khalid Attends Event In Kolkata, Faces Protests

Kolkata:

Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid faced protests on Saturday as he arrived in Kolkata to attend a programme. The protests were organised by a group called 'Hindu Samithi'. The protesters were carrying the BJP flags and asked Umar Khalid to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

He was one of the speakers at a seminar organised by the Bastar Solidarity Network, a group that has been protesting against state policy in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. Around thirty men blocked BB Ganguly Street and staged a protest against Umar Khalid outside the venue in central Kolkata. Two senior police officers were present at the spot to ensure that the event passed off peacefully. The protesters were detained and taken away in police vans.

Reacting to the protesters, Umar Khalid said, "I welcome the protests. It's a democratic right of everyone to protest. If people who are protesting find something wrong in what we are doing here they have a democratic right to protest. I just hope the ones who are protesting understand that we have a democratic right to express our opinion."But he said that he was being called an anti-national simply because he was questioning the ruling party at the Centre. "No one gives them the right to pronounce judgements. What we are seeing is a very unfortunate development. Increasingly it's not judges in court but others are taking it upon themselves to pronounce judgement. That is dangerous. If the lynch-mob decides who is national and anti-national then we are headed towards dangerous times," he added.

Umar Khalid was also critical of the CPI(M) for tying up with the Congress for the recently concluded Assembly elections in the state.

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"As long as elections are concerned, I feel any force that is committed towards change and positive transformation has to come out of electoral obsession. That is going to lead to nowhere. I don't think the CPI(M) has learnt any lesson in the last five years after it got a drubbing in 2011. And still if they continue to pin hopes on parties like the Congress they are going to face similar results in the future too," he said.