Mangaluru: JNU Scholar Dr. Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday stressed on the need of youth reading and understanding the history and about freedom movement and fighters.
Speaking in Mangaluru at an event organised to mark centenary birth anniversary of veteran freedom fighter B.V Kakkilaya, Kanhaiya said "today's youth doesn't know much about freedom fighters and the history of their own respective villages, District or States. Whereas the need is to know, read and understand the history of not just our own District, village and state but also of others too".
Commenting on the development of the country in the last 70 years, since the independence, Kanhaiya blamed the parents for not letting their kids enter politics and added that it hindered the pace of the development of the country after independence.
"The biggest hindrance has been that the youth are not allowed to question things. Our system does not allow us to know what are our rights. The children in the country are not allowed to choose subjects of their interest but instead they are turned into machines by training them only to be able to survive future market. So, although the youth of the country go out to vote they don't realise the value of their votes and have not achieved political maturity" Kanhaiya added.
He further noted that one doesn't need to be pessimistic. "Although the youth today is experiencing lack of political knowledge and maturity this is largely due to the history of our nation," he added while urging the youth to work towards a better future of the country.
"BJP is the reason why we need to stand for secularism, BJP is the reason why the importance of democracy needs to be taught in the country. The BJP has caused several political questions that the youth needs to question them about," Kanhaiya said.
"B.V Kakkilaya was called anti-national by the British because he protested for the rights of people and for the freedom of this country. Even today, people fighting for the rights of people are arrested and labelled as anti-national, the only difference is that it is not the british who does it now but our own police and government. We need to stand united and start questioning everything that is wrong, we need to start people's movement in this country".
"Our Prime Minister uses religion as shield whenever he is questioned about the economic failure during his tenure. We don't need to worry about the current scenario of our country we just need to create awareness among the people about the history and facts" Kanhaiya added.
"The real anti-national are those who blindly believe and follow the government in the name of patriotism. The real patriotism is when you question the powerful people about the wrongs they are doing to the country. This should start at our homes, educational institutions should follow this, workplaces, public and platforms should follow this".
Talking about his decision to enter politics Kanhaiya said that joining JNU inspired him to join politics.
Answering a question by a student about why he doesn't say 'Jai Shri Ram' and his idea about a unified nation, Kanhaiya replied, "One can say anything, the constitution gives us the right, I will say 'Jai Samvidhan' (hail the constitution). I am proud of my country and I love my country. At the same time I am also proud of our beautiful and diverse culture where people of several beliefs and religion co-exist," Kanhaiya said while replying to the second question.

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Mumbai (PTI): The traffic on Mumbai-Pune Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway will be temporarily diverted for a few hours on April 23 and 24 on account of bridge maintenance work.
In a release issued on Tuesday, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) said the block is planned from 12 am to 3 pm on April 23 and 24, for removal of shuttering and painting work on a bridge located near Dongargaon-Kusgaon.
Traffic towards Mumbai will remain completely closed in the section on April 23 during the three hours long block. Vehicles will be diverted via the Kiwale-Dehu Road-Talegaon route onto National Highway 48 and rejoin at Kusgaon toll plaza.
Similarly, traffic towards Pune will be shut on April 24 from 12 pm to 3 pm, and vehicles will be diverted from Kusgaon toll plaza via National Highway 48 through the Dehu Road-Kiwale route.
In case of any difficulty, commuters can contact the MSRDC control room on 9822498224 or the highway police helpline at 9833498334, the release said.
Mumbai-Pune Expressway is the first access controlled Expressway of India.
