Why Shashi Tharoor must apologize to the nation?

It’s a known fact that politicians in India can stoop down to any level to please their vote bank. In the past, mercy petitions have been signed for terrorists like Yakub Memon , there has been opposition to having our national flag in central universities, there has been support for people who hesitate to stand up for the national anthem and so on. But, recently there was a ridiculous comparison between the legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh with the new hero of the leftists Kanhaiya Kumar. And that came from the mouth of Shri Shashi Tharoor.

Why do I find this comparison by Shashi Tharoor ridiculous? Let us go over the ideals and lives of Bhagat Singh and Kanhaiya Kumar.

Bhagat Singh was born on 27th Septemeber 1907 into a Punjabi Jat family that was politically active and many of its members were opposed to the British Raj in India. He was educated in the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School, an Arya Samaji institution. At a young age of 21, he worked with several revolutionary organizations and became prominent in the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which changed to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928. This organization had prominent leaders such as Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil and Shahid Ashfaqulla Khan. He was disillusioned with MK Gandhi’s philosophy of non violence and began to advocate for the violent overthrow of the British government. His revolutionary activities included participating the killing of the Assistant Superintendent of Police Saunders to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, who was severely injured while protesting against the Simon Commission. The original target of the revolutionaries was Simon himself, but Sanders got killed in the process. Bhagat Singh heroically eluded efforts by the police to capture him by escaping to Howrah in disguise. In the year 1929, Bhagat Singh proposed a dramatic act to the HSRA to gain publicity and thereby spread their cause to the general public. The plan was to explode crude bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly, get arrested and express their aims in Court. Although the proposal was rejected at the beginning, the HSRA later felt that Bhagat Singh was the right man for the job. Accompanied by Batukeshwar Dutt, the two threw two bombs into the Constituent Assembly from the public gallery. The bombs had been specifically designed not to injure or kill anyone. Although the two could have escapade after throwing the bombs, they stayed and shouted the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ (Long Live Revolution) and offered themselves to be arrested. In jail, Bhagat Singh gained widespread national support for his 116-day hunger strike (yes, you read that right) demanding equal rights for Indian and European prisoners. Although the jail authorities tried various means to break his hunger strike, his resolve was amazingly strong. During this period, sufficient evidence was brought against him for a conviction in the Saunders case after trial by Special Tribunal and an appeal to the Privy Council in England. Bhagat Singh was convicted and hanged for his participation in the assassination at the age of 23. While some may criticize Bhagat Singh for the means he employed, nobody can question the cause that he championed. He was truly selfless and a martyr who sacrificed his life for the freedom of the nation. Shashi Tharoor is probably unaware of all of this.

Coming to Kanhaiya Kumar, he is the current president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union and also the leader of the All India Students Federation (AISF), the students’ wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI). At the age of 28, he is supposedly pursuing his Ph.D in the JNU. During his tenure as president of the JNU, there was a cultural event arranged by the students of the JNU to oppose the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. During the event, anti-India slogans like ‘Hindustan ke tukde tukde ho jaayenge Inshallah Inshallah’ were shouted. Kanhaiya was arrested by the police and charged with sedition. While it is still sub judice whether Kanhaiya participated in the slogan shouting or not, he certainly did not take any steps as a president to stop these slogans. He was subsequently granted bail by the Delhi High Court. Justice Pratibha Rani observed that the president of the JNSU was accountable for the anti-national event, anti-India slogan threaten the national integrity, seditious slogans can be backed under free speech and such infections must be cured before it turns epidemic. She went on to observe that students like Kanhaiya suffer from anti-national infection. After coming out of jail, the first thing Kanhaiya does is giving a hate-speech to a packed auditorium at the JNU, where he spews venom against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS, accusing them of dividing the nation and curtailing free speech. He then talks about freedom within India from fascist forces. As always, as per the communists, the only fascist in India is PM Modi. Kanhaiya conveniently skips talking about the atrocities committed by the CPI party workers against the RSS workers in Kerala or the mind-boggling scams under the UPA government. Some of the other notable achievements of kanhaiya include statements against human rights violations by the Indian Army in Kashmir and threatening a female student in JNU for writing an open letter against him (so much for freedom of speech and democracy). Shashi Tharoor is possibly ignoring this.

On one hand, we have a legend who sacrificed his life for the freedom of the country and on the other, we have a spoilt youth supposedly studying in a University that is funded by the tax payers of the country, is a sympathizer of terrorists and separatists and has an issue with the Indian Army. By comparing the two, Shashi Tharoor has insulted all the great freedom fighters, who placed the nation above their own lives.

The Congress and left leaning politicians of our nation, taken over by their lust for power and money, have certainly not complemented the efforts of the freedom fighters. The least they can do is not insult the likes of Bhagat Singh by comparing him with a good for nothing, spoilt, perverted, anti-national, biased man like Kanhaiya Kumar. This comparison by Shashi Tharoor was totally uncalled for and if he has a little conscience left in him, he must apologize to the nation for making this comparison.