By Archana Masih

Aurangabad, Feb 19, 2020: For the past 19 days, Nandini Kumari, 17, has been travelling through Bihar in the Jan Gan Man Yatra against the CAA-NPR-NRC, spearheaded by Communist Party of India leader Kanhaiya Kumar.

“People go crazy seeing him,” the teenager says in Hindi over the phone from Pawapuri where the entourage had halted for the night and had a meal of puri and aloo sabzi.

Nandini started the yatra (march) from Gandhiji’s ashram in Bhitiharwa, West Champaran, and will be at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on February 27 when the yatra culminates in a rally.

“Kanaihya bhaiya is telling people about the CAA-NRC. He speaks about the Constitution, the Dalits, the poor. He says we have to save the Constitution to save the nation.”

“I like that,” says the tenth grader, the daughter of a Dalit farmer from Araria district which borders Nepal. Her parents allowed her to go for the yatra, but her friend Priyanka’s mother wept for hours before giving permission.

‘What if you don’t come back? Who will marry you if you go off like this?’ the mother had asked.

“You must understand the background that they come from — they are coming from a milieu where grooms are being found for girls their age,” Tanmay Kumar, an activist, tells me over the phone from Araria, taking the call from a public meeting addressed by activist Kavita Krishnan.

Nandini, along with Nitu and Priyanka, are among the youngest members of the yatra’s 60 to 70 member entourage. The girls are activists of the Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, a trade union of landless workers, where Tanmay is an office member.

Nitu, Nandini and Priyanka are among the youngest in the yatra.

The entourage consists of 4 to 5 cars and a bus with ‘Hum Bharat Ke Log’ (We are the people of Bharat) written on it. They also display images of Gandhi, Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh as well.

The three girls have taken the responsibility of collecting donations from the people who come to hear Kanhaiya speak. The money they collect is used for petrol and towards expenses for the grand rally in Patna.

Before every public sabha, an announcement is made from the stage and the girls weave through the crowd with boxes to collect whatever people contribute willingly. The amount ranges from 10 rupees to 2,000 rupees.

“The yatra is people-funded, we don’t get money from any political party or corporation. It is crowd funding in the real sense,” continues Tanmay, adding that the girls have raised 150,000 rupees from their humble chanda dabbas.

A hundred people’s organizations, including those aligned to the Left parties, women’s groups, human rights organizations, and workers unions opposed to the CAA-NPR-NRC, are participating in the movement.

“Political leaders, NGOs, journalists, activists — the oldest is 70 and youngest 17,” says Tanmay. “Their energy is commendable.”

On February 14, Valentine’s Day, the yatra was attacked by goons for the eighth time. Nandini and several others in the travelling party have been witness to every attack. Once a stone hit the window where she was sitting and she ducked and moved to the other side to escape being hurt.

The Valentine’s Day attack was the most brutal, says Nivedita Jha, a former journalist and acting Bihar president of the National Forum for Indian Women, who is a member of the yatra’s coordination committee.

Kanhaiya Kumar’s police escort — 4 to 5 constables — pulled him out of the car to safety in the nick of time. Some among the travelling party were injured. A woman sustained a blow to the head.

The yatra had set course from a dharamshala in Buxar for Arrah when eggs were thrown at it. Few struck some people in the yatra, says Tanmay, who was seated in the bus.

Then came the stones and lathis.

“There were men on bikes who had covered their faces with hankies. They started throwing stones on the entourage and broke Kanhaiya’s car window. A 70-year-old man in our group who got down to document what was happening was injured.”

On the weekend, a delegation from the yatra, met Bihar Home Secretary Amit Suhani to express their concern about the continued attacks. “He gave instructions to district officers to look into it seriously and arrest the attackers,” adds Jha.

Three arrests were made on February 17, in connection with the attacks.

Still, as Kanhaiya addressed a sabha in Lakhi Sarai on February 17, a slipper was flung at him.

“Bauklahat hai (there is upheaval among the yatra’s detractors) that hordes of people are coming, who are not Muslims alone. The BJP wants to project the CAA-NPR-NRC as a Muslim problem,” says Nivedita Jha over the phone from Patna where she is planning for the Gandhi Madian rally.

Jha attended the sabhas in Sasaram and Aurangabad.

“Kanhaiya is a great communicator; his rural andaz (manner) touches people. He doesn’t only talk about the NRC alone, but also about unemployment, farmers and women.”

“He says if you don’t get a job then you won’t get a bride either. Who will want to marry a jobless man?”

“People — especially the youth — treat him like a hero and have a lot of love for him. They want to take selfies with him, but he carries his stardom with responsibility,” says Jha.

“When people chant ‘Kanhaiya Kumar zindabad!’, he stops them and asks them to say ‘Samvidhan Ki Jai! and Jai Hind!”

“He has a political maturity and people have a lot of hope from him,” says Jha.

The former JNU student union president and now a Communist Party of India leader, Kanhaiya Kumar’s fledgling political career suffered a setback after he lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Giriraj Singh in his home district Begusarai.

Meanwhile, plans are afoot for a huge rally in Gandhi Maidan, Patna, where the organizers estimate that 500,000 to 700,000 people will be in attendance.

The maidan has been booked for two days. Tents will have to be erected, water and bathroom facilities provided. Jha says they will spent 2 million to 2.5 million rupees on the yatra. Local stay and food is looked after by individual organizations in the districts the yatra passes through.

Nandini returned to her village on February 17 and will take a bus from the village to Araria town, 70 km away. She will then board the train to Patna along with others to attend the rally on 27.

“I don’t know my grandfather’s name, so how can I show documents?” she asks in Hindi, speaking on a group member’s phone.

She says she has an Aadhar card, but does not have any other document.

I ask if she wasn’t scared when the yatra was attacked eight times in front of her eyes.

“We have set out to save the Constitution, so why should we be afraid?)” she asked.

Source: rediff.com