Photo Courtesy: ANI
First they threw stones at the car in which Kanhaiya Kumar, president of JNU students union, was travelling from Nagpur airport to the city today to address a public meeting at the Dhanwate Hall on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Next, at the jam packed hall, some shoes and slippers were hurled and a few even tried to jump on to the dais in an unsuccessful bid to disrupt the meeting.
But Kumar was unfazed. Mocking the hooligans who called him a “traitor”, he asked if their conduct accorded with Hindutva’s idea of “patriotism”. “Nagpur is Babasaheb Ambedkar’s land, not Golwalkar’s [ideologue-in-chief of the RSS},” said Kumar. “Sangh headquarters is not Parliament and Manu Smruti is not the Constitution,” he added.
It may be recalled that on October 14, 1956, Dr. Ambedkar had converted to Buddhism along with over 3 lakh of his followers at a mammoth rally in Nagpur protesting against the inequities and indignities of the caste system.
"The atmosphere at the meeting was electric", Sharad Dudhat an activist from Nagpur told SabrangIndia. "The Dhanwate Hall was jam-packed and there were nothing less than 1,500-2,000 people outside the hall which accomodates around 1,200 persons, The best part is that an overwhelming majority of those assembled were students and young people.I can't remember when I last attended a meeting as exciting as today's in Nagpur". Kumar who spoke for about 45 minutes was greeted with thunderous applause time and again as he spoke about his idea of Azaadi, said Dudhat.
According to news reports five persons have been detained by the police.
Here is the text of his speech at Nagpur: