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Nagpur: Despite the Jat agitation pressing for reservation, the JNU fire refused to die down! The issue that engulfed the mental framework of entire nation has pointed out to the series of events that has cornered the BJP governement, or for that matter Narendra Modi government in the most unexpected manner. Post Kanhaiya Kumar episode, the fire has spread further to his fellow student Umar Khalid who is now tagged with naxal links. And the basis for the allegation – Quite surprsingly it was his meeting with his university colleague and suspected Left-aligning courier Hem Mishra who was then released on bail from the central jail. Just because he met Mishra proved that he too had naxal connections!!! How justified is that?
A highly placed educationist in Nagpur turned down the allegation as ridiculous saying, “If by any chance I would go to Gadchiroli and chanced upon meeting any naxalite, this would mean I am also a naxal, if we measure the incident with the government’s yardstick.”
The anti-Naxalite operation (ANO) wing in Nagpur said the fact that Umar went to Nagpur to receive Mishra pointed to his links with Maoist sympathisers.
Ravindra Kadam, inspector general of police (IGP), Nagpur range, who has been working on anti-Maoist operations in the region for five years, endorsed the ANO observation and said Umar was in Nagpur to receive Mishra.
Well! This is the irony of the situation! The students have been on the wrong side of the government, knowing or unknowingly! First the Hyderabad incident of Rohit Vemula’s suicide, then JNU, then BHU and Aligarh stir, the universities are certainly at the helm of affairs and the students have taken lead to every revolution!
Now who is to blame for politicising the educational institutes?
Insiders revealed that after the layers turned out to expose the truth of the situation, the government is finding itself at the backfoot as case against JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar could not be established! “Just to justify the action, the point of action has now been shifted to Umar Khalid who was allegedly absconding from the campus. Now he is being presented as naxal. Just meeting someone doesn’t prove the charge,” said a source.
Police said that Umar was in Nagpur in September last year to receive Mishra. Veera Sathidar, famous for the Marathi film Court, was also present to receive Mishra at the Nagpur central prison, police said.
Saibaba came under their scanner during Mishra’s interrogation, police said.
But even this theory flatly fails to establish Khalid’s link with naxal organisations. “No investigation agency can prove any charge just on the basis of the image,” added a source.
…Sunita Mudaliar- Associate Editor
