Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar has written an open letter to Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Mother’s day, 8 May 2016, asking “how can a mother accept the punishment of her children on the basis of biased probe reports and doctored videos”.

Mr. Kumar is out on bail in connection with a sedition case In his letter, he even referred to the JNU high-level enquiry committee report over the controversial event that happened on 9 February 2016. The report indicted many JNU students for being a part of an event organized to commemorate the death anniversary of Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict, besides allegedly raising anti-national slogans.

Mr. Kumar made an attempt to attack Ms. Irani on the occasion of Mother’s day, as she referred to all students as her children, in the past. He wrote: “We are trying hard to study in the warmth of your motherly love. Under your reign, we are learning how to study despite police canes and hunger”.

“Today, a friend asked me how under [Prime Minister] Mr. [Narendra] Modi’s regime - where besides our own mother we also have mother cow, mother India, mother Ganges and mother Smriti - could [Dalit scholar] Rohith Vemula die? I am asking you this because I have no answer.

“The same anti-national friend also said that mother Smriti’s Ministry sent several letters to punish Rohith and was also responsible for withholding his fellowship for seven months,” he wrote further.

“In a great country like India, can a mother drive her child to suicide? Can a mother accept punishments on her children based on doctored videos and a biased probe? Your children, starving for 11 days, are asking you this question. Please reply, if you find the time. The friend also called you an ‘anti-rational mother of anti-nationals’. I hope you will prove this allegation false in your factual reply,” he added.

Sumana