‘Inaccessible, autocratic’ or ‘fighting for values’? Kanhaiya Kumar ruffles feathers in Congress
After a while, Trivedi conveyed the leadership’s stand that the camp, in which attendance was mandatory, would not be deferred. Many saw it as “autocratic”, particularly coming from someone “who does not even hold any official post” in the NSUI or the party. Trivedi quit the group.The camp was eventually cancelled as Sachin Rao, the AICC in-charge of training, had to be in Jammu and Kashmir around that time.In many ways, the pushback over a schedule issue serves as an index of the larger stirrings that the “lateral entry” of faces with a Left background, like Kanhaiya, Mevani and Trivedi, have sparked within the Congress.
Kanhaiya, who rose to prominence after being arrested in a sedition case while serving as the president of the JNU Students’ Union, was a member of the Communist Party of...