If anyone tries to challenge Constitution, we won’t tolerate: Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech before arrest

Here is what JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar said in a speech hours before he was arrested by Delhi Police and charged with sedition and criminal conspiracy.

By: Express Web Desk

February 16, 2016 11:56 AM IST

2 min read

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Police have booked Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of criminal conspiracy and sedition.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union President Kanhaiya Kumar’s police custody has been extended till Wednesday. He was arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of sedition, with the Union Home Minister claiming that the event held at JNU, in support of Afzal Guru’s execution, was backed by LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.

Telegraph India has put out a transcription of the speech Kanhaiya gave, hours before he was arrested. Below is an excerpt.

… What I mean to say is that we don’t need the certificate of patriotism from the RSS. We don’t need a nationalist certificate from the RSS. We belong to this country. We love this country. We fight for the 80 per cent of the poor population of this country. For us, this is nation worship.

We have full faith in Babasahab (Ambedkar). We have full faith in the Constitution of India. We want to say this very forcefully that if anyone tries to challenge the Constitution, be it the Sanghis, we will not tolerate.

We have faith in the Constitution. But we don’t have faith in the Constitution that is taught in Jhandewalan (RSS headquarters in Delhi) and Nagpur. We don’t have faith in Manusmriti, we don’t have faith in the caste system in this country.

The Constitution and Babasahab Ambedkar talk about corrective measures. The same Babasahab Ambedkar talks about abolishing capital punishment. The same Babasahab Ambedkar talks about freedom of expression. And we want to uphold the Constitution, we want to uphold our right. To read the entire text, click here.

WATCH: Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech here