On the evening of 9 February, 30 minutes before the scheduled start of a cultural event organised by the Democratic Students Union (an ultra-leftist group) titled ‘A Country without a Post Office’ to protest against the “judicial killing” of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat, the university administration of Jawaharlal Nehru University cancelled the event. Dozens of students gathered on the Sabarmati laws — including Kashmiri students — to protest against the cancelation and raised slogans.

 One among them was Umar Khalid. Former DSU leader Khalid, 28, resigned from his post in November 2015 along with 10 others and is now doing his

Umar gave a speech last night in JNU which is as follows

"Friends in the last few days, in the last ten days, I got to know a few things about myself, that I did not know before. I got to know that I have been to Pakistan twice, even though I do not have a passport. Then I got to know that I am the ‘mastermind’. JNU students have wonderful minds, but I was projected as the mastermind. That I have been planning these events in seventy-eighty universities. I did not know that I have that kind of influence. That I have been planning these meetings for the last 10 months. I mean, if it takes 10 months to plan such a public meetings, then, JNU will shut down. I got to know that I have made 800 phone calls – no need for evidence, nothing, and where have I called to the Gulf, to Kashmir, who knows where else. At least, bring some evidence. The way that they have tried to frame us in a media trail. I mean, even after there was a statement from the IB, from the government, that there is no link with the Jaish-E-Muhammad, even after that no one in the media channels that tried to frame us in media trials felt no need to offer an apology, a disclaimer, for trying to defame us, trying to frame us. My name was associated with Jaish-E-Muhammad. At first, I laughed, because, if the Jaish-E- Muhammad gets to know this they will protest against being associated with someone like me at Jhandewalan. If these media channels think they will get away with this, with the way they have told lies, then they are mistaken. If anyone speaks up against something in this country, then, If someone is an Adivasi, they call him a Maoist. If someone is a Muslim, they call him a Terrorist. There has been a whole process like this (in the media) with the backing of the entire state apparatus, behind this kind of media trial. Perhaps many such people, (who are attacked in this way), they are helpless, have no one to speak for them, but in this case, but in this case, they (the media channels) are mistaken, you have taken on the wrong kind of people, there are thousands here to speak up. Each media channel will have to account for its actions. I was not very concerned about myself. Because I know that you were with me, in your thousands. But I did get concerned, I did start panicking when my father was threatened when my sister was threatened with rape. When I heard about death threats, It was then that I got concerned. I remembered that when some Christian nuns were threatened with rape by the Bajrang Dal in Kandhamal (in Orissa) they were raped to the accompaniment of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. It was then that I remembered Comrade Kanhaiya, our student union president say, that if this is your Bharat Mata then she cannot be our mother. There are some journalists, come CEOs, a gentleman in Times Now, whom I will not like to name, and their agents, small time TV reporters here, I do not know where they get this kind of hatred for JNU students from. I would like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9K8ZM_6Tc4now to focus on something slightly personal, for a bit. I said this some time ago, I will repeat this again, In the last six-seven years, when I have done politics on this campus, I have never thought of myself as a Muslim, I have never also projected myself as a Muslim. Today, I think, the oppression that there is in society, is not only on Muslims, it is there on Dalits, it is there on Adivasis. It is on every oppressed section, And we, who come from these oppressed sections, these communities and oppressed identities. There is a need for us to come out of these immediacies and look at all of these things in a holistic manner. I felt I am a Muslim, for the first time, in these last seven years, only in the last ten days. The manner in which, to quote Rohith Vemula, “I was reduced to my immediate identity”, is very shameful. They are saying that I am a Pakistani agent, So let me quote a Pakistani poet (Habib Jalib?) “Are Bhai, Hindustan bhi Mera hai, Pakistan bhi Mera ha, par dono mulkon par Amerika ka dera hai” “Brother, Hindustan is mine, and Pakistan is mine, but on both these lands, America has its design” And you – the BJP – clients and agents of America – you dare teach us what is patriotism. You who are selling this country, its mineral resources, its people, its labour, even its education system – at the WTO – you dare teach us. So to my fellow ‘Anti-Nationals’ I say, ‘Anti- Nationals of the World Unite. Our love for the people, know no boundaries, know no borders. We are against all governments, all oppressors, everywhere.”