Before I delve into this matter any further and address my questions to Mr. Raju Kumar Sahu (and his handlers), let me issue a specific disclaimer about this blog post—We at Omygdala dislike all politicians and political parties equally. It doesn’t matter if it is Congress or BJP or AAP or JDU or JD or CPI or TMC or any other local or national political party. They are all corrupt, they are all the same… two sides of the same coin. Politicians are only in it for themselves and nobody else. Hence, I am not trying to make a statement on behalf of a particular political party. This opinion is mine and mine only.
A short trip back in time
Okay, now to the matter at hand. First a little background for the uninitiated. Rohith Chakravarti Vemula, may God rest his soul, was a dalit PHD scholar at the University of Hyderabad. He committed suicide on January 17 2016, after he and four of his fellow students were suspended based on the allegation that they were involved in anti-national and casteist activities. His suicide triggered massive nationwide protests against alleged discrimination of Dalits and people from the lower caste. His controversial suspension from the university and his subsequent suicide is still being debated and discussed in the MSM.
What now?
A couple of days ago, Mr. Raju Kumar Sahu, a “student leader” from the Hyderabad Central University Students’ Union (HCUSU) and a former compatriot of Mr. Vemula, came forward with a startling allegation. According to him, Student’ Federation of India (SFI)—a student body he had resigned from a few days ago—and Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) were exploiting the unfortunate suicide of Mr. Vemula for their own selfish interests. He had resigned from SFI in protest of their “opportunistic political agenda and divisive ideology”
Mr. Sahu was subsequently interviewed by various media bots, including the one in the video below. Please take a few minutes to listen to him being interviewed by NDTV News.
I have transcribed the interview below, should the news channel decide to delete the video some day. Anyway, here is what the gentleman says:
“Yeah movement has started from the three month before… but… and the tent has been putted on there and around six to seven thousand rupees is required for the one day. So, around 100 days how many costed it is I… you can expect, and one more thing, many rallies has happened, many colour posters are there and many… um… in 10 or 15 days around they put… they give the food… and also in the time of 125th of Baba Sahib Ambedkar they serve up lavish food kind of… um… they are serving the non-veg and alls in that time. So, by this evidence we can say that massive fund is coming from the outside, which I just ask the… this peoples because … um … in the time of… um… in the beginning of the movement Rahul Gandhi has came two times, Kejriwal has came two time, Owaisi’saab has came. So, these are the people… these people can be behind of the funding of giving the fund. So, I am just asking to JAC by my press note from where they are getting the funds, they have to mention all the things, they have to reveal the truth…”
I don’t know about you, but what caught my attention was his English-speaking skill; it was quite poor. His allegations may well be true or untrue, and I will leave it to the intellectuals on the idiot box to harp about it, but what piqued my curiosity was, how can a guy with such poor English-speaking skill write this cogent press note/resignation letter, included below.
My observations
This resignation letter was posted as an Oped in The Pioneer and is also available on his Facebook page. Yes, the Oped version is slightly different from the one in Facebook; however, both of them are “nicely” written. Yes, there are a few grammatical errors here and there, but the structure of the resignation letter is decently framed. It seems that “the speaker” Mr. Sahu and “the writer” Mr. Sahu are two different people, which brings me to my questions and observations?
- The media bots did not feel the necessity to ask you this question, but I do. Who wrote that resignation letter for you, Mr. Sahu? Or, maybe the correct question is, who helped you write that resignation letter?
- Mind you, I am not making fun of your English-speaking skill; mine is not that great either. I am also not saying that your points are or aren’t valid. My observations are simply that, to me, it seems you sought somebody’s help in writing that letter, and you are not recognizing that person’s effort. If I seek somebody’s help in writing something, I will surely be mentioning that in my article or in the footnote. It is called attribution or acknowledgement. Acknowledging help is a great leadership trait, Mr. Sahu. And you being a student leader and all, you should lead from the front and pass the accolades and the acknowledgements around.
- You were also interviewed by Times Now and in that interview, too, you spoken in broken English. Hence, it isn’t that you experienced a brain fart or a brain freeze when you were being interviewed by NDTV News.
- If your write-up was supported by agents of a particular political party or a person/persons with a particular political affiliation, then, put a distance between him/her/them and yourself. Believe me they will chew you up and spit you out once your usefulness has been exploited.
- Don’t end up being a patsy. Politics and poker have a lot of things in common—bluffing, displaying controlled aggression, laying a trap, holding out, having stoic patience, controlling your emotions, knowing when to go all in, etc. And there is a saying in poker that goes something like this—“If you have been in a poker game for a while, and you still don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.” The same is true for politics, too—”If you have been in a political game for a while, and you still don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.” It is worth repeating, don’t end up being a patsy.
- Finally, a friendly advice for you, take it for what it is worth. I believe you come from a poor family in Jharkhand and are pursuing MCA at HCU. You seem like a nice guy; hence, finish your studies, get good grades and start a career with a firm of your choice. Leave politics to the blood sucking, disease-spreading ticks. Get away from the “polytick-cian”, they are not your friends. They will give you your two minutes under the limelight and then with a flick of a switch the spotlight will be gone, and you will be a nobody to them again. Run, Mr. Raju, Run!