Kanhaiya Kumar to speak in Mumbai, but few doors open to him

This Saturday Mumbai will host Kanhaiya Kumar but he will find a cold welcome here The star student leader hardly needs an introduction mdash in fact as soon as it was announced that he would be coming to address students in the city several colleges and public spaces shut their doors on him As a result the event mdash a major highlight for the otherwise humdrum student politics in Mumbai mdash will be held at a nondescript school in WorliKanhaiya the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union JNUSU shot to fame overnight as a firebrand student leader and after he was arrested on charges of sedition for allegedly raising antiIndia slogans at a rally in February Even before the charges were found to be false he was hailed as a symbol of freedom of expression and democratic rightsJNUSU president Kanhaiya KumarStudent politics has intensified across the nation after recent events at higher education institutions such as the Hyderabad Central University HCU and Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU Closer home in Maharashtra student elections have been banned for more than two decades but the pace is now picking up with events such as Saturdayrsquos StudentsYouth Assembly Against DiscriminationStudents put up posters to spread the word about Saturdays event which will be open to all with no entry chargeIn early April itself it was settled that he would visit Mumbai to talk to students here and heavy publicity began about 10 days ago However the organisers were turned away by every venue they approached ldquoJust hearing Kanhaiyarsquos name people raised their eyebrows Our members had to run around a lot in the city to finalise a venue I personally went to places like KC College Churchgate Damodar Hall Parel and Vanmali Hall Dadar At all places I was denied permissionrdquo said Shambuk Sankalpana Uday the vicepresident of the Maharashtra council of the All India Students Federation AISF which is one of the organisations cohosting the event titled StudentsYouth Assembly Against Discrimination Several other student organisations have collaborated for the event including the Students Federation of India SFI All India Students Association AISA Progressive Studentsrsquo Forum PSF and Chatrabharati among othersShambuk added ldquoAnother member from our organisation approached the AnjumanIIslam Trust but had a similar experience He was also denied because the topic and person involved are quite sensitive The trust which runs several higher education institutions feared they would have to face adverse consequencesrdquoAfter an entire week of running from pillar to post the organisers were welcomed by the Janata Shikshan Sanstha which runs the Worli school However they are not entirely happy with this outcomeldquoThis looks like a deliberate effort to restrict our democratic right to hold a public meeting It is because of such experiences that we are not able to hold the programme in any of the cityrsquos prominent localities The programme is now fixed at a school in Worli which is not a very prominent locationrdquo said ShambukHowever when midday contacted the venues named by the organisers each of them denied that their rejection was because of Kanhaiya or the nature of the eventKC College principal Manju Nichani expressed shock at the suggestion and said ldquoNobody approached me If the office has denied them it will purely be because the auditorium was already booked The office staff is not aware of who Kanhaiya is or any of the other particulars so they did not deny them on those groundsrdquoSeveral attempts to reach Satish Shairyawan general manager of the Damodar Hall in Parel received no response but Dr Zahir Kazi president of the AnjumanIIslam Trust said ldquoThis is shocking I came to know about it for the first time Until now nobody has approached me I find their statement to be mischievousrdquoThis reporter found a similar response from Chandrashekhar Patahre the general secretary of the Kshatriya Union which runs Vanmali Hall in Dadar He said ldquoI am not aware if specifically this organisation approached us for a booking But there are only two reasons for which we deny proposals mdash if the hall is already booked or in case of public meetings if the organisers do not have an NOC from the policerdquoThis is what Shambuk had to say about the NOC ldquoNo NOC needed to hold a meeting in a closed premises as that is not going to cause any disturbance to public But we are in the process of acquiring it since it is needed to ensure that our event will not disturb trafficrdquo