We are now into day three of this story — and the outrage levels remain as amped up as when it first broke. Which makes me wonder: Just what is this story?
On a university campus late one evening, a student who couldn’t hold it in any more took a leak by the side of the road. Not a good thing to do, definitely. May he who has never answered the call of nature while thinking himself unobserved, et cetera…
A girl who was passing by objected. Again, perfectly valid, and good for her. (Equally good if it had been a guy passing by).
An altercation resulted. Again, inevitable (not acceptable, mind) — if I find myself in the wrong, a natural impulse is to lash out at whoever caught me out.
The girl complained — and so she should have; good for her. As Edmund Burke once famously said, the only thing necessary for public urination to triumph is for good people to say nothing.
The university investigated — as it is mandated to. And when the investigation deemed that the student was wrong, it took the necessary disciplinary action — and added a warning as codicil that any further misbehaviour would invite dire consequences. (From the fact that a year later the student is still on campus, one would presume he kept his dick zipped in public then on).
How on earth did this incident become a litmus of Kanhaiya Kumar’s fitness for the role of “revolutionary hero” — a role that, seemingly, no one but his colleagues on campus and a few media outlets looking for a shiny new object have thus far fitted him out for?
Seriously, people, we are hanging a debate on such ephemera now? Us? The country that 22 months ago voted into office new members of the 16th Lok Sabha — among whom an estimated, record-setting one-third face actual criminal charges?
186 MPs with criminal charges out of 541 surveyed.
Even more troubling, most of these charges are for what the association classifies as serious crimes, including murder, kidnapping and crimes against women. In the 2014 parliament, 112 members face such charges, including nine accused in murder cases and 17 in attempted murder cases.
Our political parties actually gave such people tickets to contest. What is more, the leaders of said national parties stumped for these people, and helped them win.
Oh well, at least none of those 186 MPs peed in public. At least, none that we know of.
Memo to the right wing: The more you throw fits of hysterics about Kanhaiya Kumar, the more you keep him in the very limelight you argue he is not fitted for. How hard is that to understand?
Memo to the media: You guys missed a viral bet: surely, given your recent proclivities, “Kanhaiya Leaks” was a headline begging to be used.
In passing, a contemporary news report:
A senior government official was caught on camera, urinating at the confluence of three rivers – Ganga, Yamina and Saraswati – popularly known as Triveni Sangam.
The video shows Allahabad Additional District Magistrate (ADM) O.P. Srivastava relieving himself, it has gone viral on the social media.
The irony of the entire episode is that Srivastava is seen wearing a ‘Clean Ganga’ t-shirt while committing this shameful act.
Apparently, the senior official was at the Triveni Sangam to discuss arrangements for the upcoming Triveni Mahotsav.
Smoke Signals 
Pingback: So, the issue now is that Kanhaiya peed?
Prem, per http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/kanhaiya-kumar-was-fined-by-jnu-for-alleged-misbehaviour-with-girl-student/articleshow/51345993.cms he also called the lady psychopath and threatened her with dire consequences. Now, the peeing may be funny but threatening a woman is different from “if I find myself in the wrong, a natural impulse is to lash out at whoever caught me out.”.
So does this not mean he disrespects women and hence his credibility is to be questioned? The urination part is just click bait.
Yes, and it is not my intent to defend the indefensible. My limited point is this: I don’t know what happened there (media stories, for reasons that should be obvious, need to be taken with big doses of salt). But someone does — the university, which investigated (I presume at that point it spoke to the complainant as well, in depth) and found sufficient grounds to hold him guilty, and prescribe both a punishment and a warning. All of that is fair.
What I don’t get is: (a) Did KK ever set himself up as a defender of public rights? (2) In this country where rapists and murderers are deemed fit for political office, are we spending three — today makes four — discussing a man’s fitness on the basis of one incident in college, which as it turns out the authorities dealt with and moved on?
To the larger question of whether or not he disrespects women, I don’t know. I have no connection with JNU, am not in touch, don’t know anything about him besides what is in the public domain. In public, there is this incident, and it is condemnable. If that is all there is, I’d say “move on”. I have respect, max, for women. But if you ask me to swear that in my 56 years I have never gotten angry with a girl, woman, whatever, never sworn at one, never used the word “bitch” etc, I wouldn’t be able to. I was young once, and not as sensitive. I do know this, though — when I’ve made mistakes (in this or any other category), I’ve learnt, and moved on.
So — bottomline: My post is a protest, if you will, against the kind of political debate we are having, using this as peg; not an attempt to refurbish KK’s image. As far as that goes, if he has what it takes, he will amount to something. If not, not. I am not invested.
May he who… …Cast the first kidney stone????? 😀
…and.. then some nitpicking… Edmund Burke famously did not say it… not that quote.. well ok, the gist maybe, but, ah well, Stuart Mill and so many others said similar things.. Not many nits to pick, though 😀
Yeah, you are right about the provenance of that tweet — the thought has many fathers; I picked the one on the most commonly cited birth certificate is all 🙂
While on this, scary thought: In some future age, will people actually quote Burke as saying “The only thing for public urination…” etc? Omigawd!
Was reading your other comments.. 🙂
Here is something quote-worthy that no one is saying and should have been worth a funny tweet someplace.. (I am not on any other kind of social media or I would have posted it) no one has picked this so far (suddenly reminded by the other comment on this post by that writer of literary porn from my college days hehe… )… 56 inches is actually approximately 1420 mm in the metric units.. So what he is saying in essence, … “Hum to ek hazaar 420 ke barabar hain…” .. hahaha…
So how is that for a worthy quote for future generations? You may attribute it to Edmund Burke too.. Warren Hastings might have said chappan inch as well, who knows?
Sanghis have been writing and tweeting about this for last 3 days without complete knowledge on the subject. Truth as reported is that Kanhaiya was conducting an experiment for his thesis which was then tiltled ” Pee in upwind direction – an alternative form of shower in water starved sub Saharan Africa”.
Research was aimed at Swatch Africa which was later adopted by Sanghis as Swatch Bharat. However, due to excessive fine of Rs. 3000 imposed by unsympathetic JNU disciplinary committee which only had 90% communists. Kanahiya was forced to change his research topic in South Africa, which was hardly of any interest to him as opposed to first topic which really was from his heart.
Uninterested in research work, Kanhaiya took to politics and ended up as projected future PM candidate by so called anti-nationalistic media.
When I figure out the point, Ashok, I will respond, promise.
Lol, that this is news for media, what an underbelly they’ve exposed to attack. First pic with a friend via Punjab Kesari going viral now this. There was a Mayank Austen Soofi HT blog (~2009-2010), I cannot find right now, that talked about public peeing in Delhi. This is related http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/2014/10/20/city-culture-pissing-men-india-gate-elsewhere/
No, I mean, I am no fan of whataboutery really, I bunged in that pissing at the Triveni report only tangentially, because I was amused by the sheer hubris of it all. The thing that concerns me is how politics has become all about beating something to death with any stick — flimsy, manufactured, whatever — rather than through argumentation and refutation. And this is a particularly fragile stick, this one of “fitness for public life”, considering the sort of lowlife we fill our Parliament with on a regular basis. That you resort to such argument in itself suggests to me that you find yourself all at sea when it comes to ideas, to reason.
I agree, again. Media, and RW troll kinds at the moment aren’t realizing the damage they do with trivializing issues, ad hominem remarks. Public peeing and flashing (which they insist it was) are two different things. The latter is in realm of sexual harassment.
It’s like something as grotesque as an acid attack becoming make up. Environmental damage to holy river brushed aside as Greenpeace/foreign conspiracy. Army for private event is ok, it’s for world stage, blah blah, but OROP veterans don’t deserve a second thought.
Mitali Saran hit the nail on the head when she said ‘Apparently they think that treating unforgiveable errors as role models is a good idea.’. Harping on Congress and 60 years for how long? Congress should start saying oh well the British left us poor (Tharoor’s reparations speech) , and the country will continue to suffer in this exchange because no one, 56 inch chest or not, is willing to stand up, take responsibility and say I’m in charge and will resolve this issue, not blame the opposition.
That last line precisely sums up my angst — the bit about someone, some time in our benighted history, taking responsibility and saying fuck the bloody past, let’s do something today about our tomorrow.