Bengaluru: Even while coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and BJP for their “intolerance,” controversial former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union, Kanhaiya Kumar continued to claim on Thursday that he was not anti-Modi as often portrayed.
Participating in a Meet- the-Press programme here, the firebrand student leader charged that the RSS did not understand the preamble of the Constitution. “It doesn't tolerate any voice raised against it, which is the essence of democracy. You don't get away with criticism of the government or its ideology. People like Pansare and Kalaburgi are examples of this. The Prime Minister, the RSS and BJP should realise that they are not the nation, but only components of it,”' he stressed. Claiming that although Mr Modi had made many promises before coming to power, he had not delivered on them, he deplored that there was instead an attempt to infuse RSS ideology into the education system.
“The IIT staff resigned and there was an attempt to privatise all education. Also there was a 17 per cent cut in the budget for education. And despite the 42 per cent increase in farmers’ suicides, the government reduced the import tax on wheat. Even where demonetisation is concerned, the RBI has no concrete results to show. Instead 20 lakh people have lost their jobs,'' he observed. Asked why he was hesitant to join politics, he said politics did not mean contesting elections. “It is addressing the basic problems of common people,” he said. To a query on whether the promised ‘acche din’ would ever come, he quipped they had already come for those who compromised on their principles in the media and bureaucracy for the sake of power and money. “They will not come for farmers and common people,” he predicted.
Mr Kumar said he found no rationale in the ABVP objecting to his visit to Bengaluru. “Even a year after my arrest, no chargesheet has been filed against me. I am out on bail and have been going to various places,” he pointed out.
