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Mumbai: JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “better” than US President-elect Donald Trump.
Kumar was speaking at a panel discussion titled ‘From Bihar to Tihar’ at Times LitFest. “Despite several differences (he may have with Narendra Modi), Modi is better than Trump. There has been a rise in authoritative sentiment across the world and if you see the kind of language that was used in (US) presidential election, the comments made against migrants and women were unprecedented,” said Kumar, who earlier this year faced a sedition case over “anti-national” slogans at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The student leader quoted the iconic African American leader Martin Luther King, saying, “Bad people are shouting not because they are more powerful but because the good people are quiet.”
Speaking about Najeeb Ahmed, the JNU student who has been missing for the past several weeks, Kumar said, “The government is actually doing nothing but throwing some issues before us. It is happening because there is no powerful opposition that would keep a check on this government. The issues of Dadri (lynching by cow-vigilantes), JNU’s anti-national slogans and Najeeb’s missing are being diverted. In Dadri, the committee is focusing on whether it was beef or not, in Rohith Vemula case, the committee was set up to decide his caste, in JNU’s anti-national slogan case, the committee was set up to find out whether footage was doctored or not. There are many other similar cases,” he said.
“Why was no chargesheet filed in the JNU anti-national slogans case even after nine months if the government was serious?” Kumar asked.
