A new star is born in the horizon of our great country. A
star named Kanhaiya. In a matter of 50 minutes, Kanhaiya Kumar made the
Narendra Modi brand of nationalism pale into insignificance making the
government realize that what has happened has gone completely against their
planning and template. A JNU brave heart, and the president of its students
union, Kanhaiya Kumar, branded as an anti-national by the Modi government and
arrested on charges of sedition, was released from jail and went back into the
cradle of the country’s most potent outpouring against the ruling party, his
campus.
In a speech, a spontaneous overflow of angst and anger and
armed with the only weapon he can ever brandish, his patriotism and love for
the India we really know and believe in; he transformed into Subhash Chandra
Bose, into Bhagat Singh, into Raj Guru, into Sukhdev and yes also into Che and
at times into a young Nelson Mandela, as he drove the youth of the nation to
reclaim an India of compassion, of justice, of liberty and equality. But above
all, he took this speech to a level which echoed the most defining speech which
catapulted the civil rights movement in America and the world, Martin Luther
King’s “I have a dream” speech, during a march in Washington calling for an end
to racism and for civil and economic rights.
The poor and the
dalits of India are what the coloured people of America-those who King fought
for- were. If the Lincoln Memorial was Martin Luther King’s venue, the JNU
campus was Kanhaiya Kumar’s. Kumar spoke of dream of an India where the son of
a labourer could study with the son of the President.
Departing from his prepared speech, King uttered the four
words which transformed modern America, ‘I have a dream”, a dream of freedom
and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. Similarly Kanhaiya
Kumar took the battle unleashed by the Modi government of subjugating and
frightening the voice of an India which wants equality and justice and wants
freedom from the forces which curtail these; back to him and his party,
government and organization.
It was impossible for any true Indian not to be moved.
Kanhaiya pulled very heartstring, every emotional chord was touched, every eye
was moist and yet every muscle was strengthened, not to pick up a gun but to
simply clench ones fist with a resolve to fight for a better India.
As this was played out, the mind turned to our Goa. Look at
our political space, look at our campuses, look at our villages and the streets
of our towns. Do we have a Kanhaiya Kumar in our land which seeks for justice,
and freedom from corruption from U turns, from fake promises, from a government
which has stopped listening to the true voice of Goa?
But let us ask ourselves. Are we indeed looking for a
Kanhaiya Kumar? Are Goans prepared to be led by, not a man but a movement
called Kanhaiya, based on the dreams and aspirations of an India which Kanhaiya
Kumar espoused in his speech after he returned to JNU, a speech he made as a
proud Indian with the Indian flag flying behind him.
He also taught us that the fight for a better Goa has to
come from those who will live the longest to see tomorrow, our children and our
youth. It is they who must speak up, who must demand, who must hold truth to
power.
Above all, he taught us that that all we need is a will to
change and the courage to fulfil that will.
Fellow Goans, learn to dream and dream well for a better Goa. Look for
the Kanhaiya within you.
