Kanhaiya Kumar's 'close friend' quits AISF, accuses him of being casteist in resignation letter

Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU), has been accused of being a casteist by one of his close aides. Jayant Jigyasu, who has been working with Kanhaiya for All India Students Federation (AISF), JNU unit, has raised some serious allegations against him. 

Jayant resigned from the AISF and the Communist Party of India (CPI) and shared his resignation letter, written to CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, on Facebook. In his letter, Jayant accused Kanhaiya of being a casteist and lying on several occasions. He also accused the former JNUSU president of ruining the student organisation in JNU. 

Jayant was one of Kanhaiya's close friends and was also a close ally in the student wing of the CPI. 

"A complete pattern can be seen in the organisation and party that has exploited, neglected, deprived and oppressed people. People have been treated as bonded labourers. The flag is carried by someone else, the leader is someone else," he said. 

Jayant, directly attacking Kanhaiya, said, "Anyone who wins elections in JNU gradually turns away from the organisation's activities and responsibilities. Somewhere it is cast arrogance and somewhere it is class arrogance. I, also remember a meeting where Kanhaiya had said that I was not even a part of the AISF's JNU unit." 

He also accused Kanhaiya of betraying the JNU's student community by signing the attendance sheet when the students were protesting against the varsity's compulsory attendance diktat. 

"Comrade, I do not know if this has been brought to the AISF's top leadership or not but Kanhaiya, the person with whom the entire progressive section was standing when injustice was done to him, betrayed the JNU's student community. When all organisations were fighting against the administration's compulsory attendance diktat when all student organisations were boycotting attendance, Kanhaiya was the first person to sign the attendance sheet," Jayant wrote in the letter. 

Jayant, through his letter, also questioned the way the CPI functions. In the letter shared on social media, Jayant writes, "Dalits, backwards, tribals and minorities can work under anyone but people from so-called upper castes cannot naturally accept the leadership of Dalits-backwards-tribals. There are so many layers of insults, how one escapes all of them, fights them?"

Jayant levelled several allegations against Kanhaiya Kumar and the CPI. But what is written at the end of the letter is very shocking.

Addressing Reddy, he wrote, "Comrade, in the current situation, is being led by 'wise-minded people' and the entire system has been hijacked. Thus, making it an organisation with a one-man show. I have also been threatened in the name of power by these goons. There is a danger to my life and I feel a lot of suffocation."

Read Jayant Jigyasu's letter here: 

Kanhaiya is yet to react to his former comrade's accusations.