Later, on the condition that we leave the equipment outside, we were let into a tastefully-drawn living room where the man, described by detractors as "no less dangerous than Masood Azhar", was standing in the centre, flanked by friends taking selfies! Just in that moment, Kanhaiya was neither revolutionary nor rebel nor leader he was just a regular young guy, hanging out with his friends, mentally blocking out the terrible ordeal he had been through. And so, we found ourselves standing unannounced at the door of his house, a door that was initially shut firmly in our faces when they saw our cameras.
Then a source tipped us off that the student leader, whose arrest on charges of sedition catapulted him to global headlines and instant stardom, may be at the residence of Professor Ajay Patnaik, a faculty member who stood steadfast in his support for him. But no one knew where he was or when he would emerge to address them.Īs I downed my nth cup of nimbu chai (lemon tea) and thought of the inevitable media scrum that would follow, I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to meet Kanhaiya at all. On the leafy campus grounds of the 46-year-old institution was an air of anticipation and excitement as news spread Kanhaiya, their student union's President, was back. Given the shameful conduct of three prominent channels, their hyperventilating anchors and worst, the broadcast of a doctored video and morphed photograph to build a ham-handed case of sedition against him, I, too, would have been suspicious. Even as a journalist, I didn't blame them for their wariness about allowing Kanhaiya, 28, to engage with the press. The media was being kept at a firm distance from JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar as political leaders of the CPI escorted him under-the-radar from Delhi's Tihar Jail to Jawaharlal Nehru University and quietly bundled him into a faculty member's residence.
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