JNU row: All you need to know about Umar Khalid

Hemmed in by the Delhi High Court's decision, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid, along with Anirban Bhattacharya, surrendered to Delhi Police Tuesday night.  Khalid, who faces charges of sedition, is among the five students who allegedly shouted anti-national slogans at a campus event on February 9. The former Democratic Students Union (DSU) leader has remained at the centre of the storm surrounding JNU in the past few weeks. After getting hectored on prime time news television, absconding from the campus, to a late-night speech which went viral on social media, Khalid has acquired several avatars. Here are few things to know about the 'angry young man' of JNU.

 

The student and the student leader

Umar Khalid is a student of PhD in JNU's Centre for Historical Studies. He did his M.A. in history and M.Phil from JNU and has been doing field work in Jharkhand.  The 28-year old resigned from his post in the DSU in November 2015 along with 10 others, to pursue his research, which according to a news report in Hindustan Times, is about the land alienation of tribals in Jharkhand. Khalid's name surfaces as one of the main applicants who sought permission for organising a cultural event organised by the Democratic Students Union (an ultra-leftist group) titled ‘A Country without a Post Office’ to commemorate the anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru on February 9, and to protest the “judicial killing” of Guru and Maqbool Bhat. Intelligence reports suggest the group wanted to hold such events in 18 universities in the country. Khalid has denied this.

Disappearance and rumours

In the next few days, he appeared on different television channels defending the event. On Friday, immediately after Delhi Police arrested JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of 'criminal conspiracy' and 'sedition' under Sections 124A and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, Khalid reportedly went missing from the campus. Following this, several media reports claimed he was a Jaish-e-Mohammad sympathiser and had links with several terrorist organisations, while several others reported posters outside JNU and in the Munirka area calling him a “Kashmiri traitor”. The Delhi Police also said they were investigating his phone calls to various places, including Kashmir and Pakistan, which they alleged he has visited.

Clarifications and Family background

Following a national uproar, Khalid’s father Syed Qasim Ilyas, a former leader of the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), said “My son and Kanhaiya Kumar are the worst victims of the media trial. My son is being called a terrorist and someone who travelled to Pakistan, even though he doesn’t have a passport. He may be anything but he's not a terrorist,” Ilyas said. He also pleaded that his own background as a SIMI leader should not be made grounds for any action against his son. Umar is not Kashmiri. His parents live in Delhi and he is actually from the Amravati district of Maharashtra. According to a Firstpost.com report, his family moved to Delhi 35 years ago, where they live in the Jamia Nagar area and have no connection with Kashmir.

Ideological leanings

"His ideology has become his worst enemy. He is a meritorious student, did his MA and MPhil in such a prestigious institution. The country's media is slowly turning on him because he is a perfect fit: A Muslim face with views that don't gel with the State's opinion on things," Illyas has been quoted as saying. The firstpost.com report also quoted  Umar telling a television channel on February 9 that  he is "not from Kashmir, but what is happening there is Indian occupation of Kashmir. Just like one territory is occupied by Pakistan, another territory is occupied by the Indian State. (Jawaharlal) Nehru’s words in 1947 were very clear — Kashmir will be given a plebiscite.”

Speaking about his religious views, Khalid in his speech February 22, when he resurfaced on the campus, said, "I have never thought of myself as a Muslim, never projected myself as a Muslim. Today the society represses not only a Muslim, but several social groups like the Dalits and the adivasis, and for those of us who come from oppressed communities, there is a need to come out of our immediacy and look at all of this in a holistic manner. The first time that I felt I was a Muslim in the past seven years, was in these last ten days. To quote Rohit Vemula, I was reduced to my immediate identity."

Umar is a communist and self-proclaimed atheist, according to his friends at JNU, reports Firstpost.com.

The hunt for Khalid

Delhi Police had been looking for Umar since February 11 after he was charged with sedition. Ten other DSU activists and students were named as the organisers of the February 9 event to commemorate Guru's death anniversary. Police had issued a lookout notice for Khalid, as well as four other students- Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga, Anirban Bhattacharya, who were charged with sedition after they were seen on camera raising anti-India slogans on February 9. On February 23, Delhi Police commissioner B S Bassi declared that he was waiting for the students to surrender peacefully, and that they would will wait till evening before moving in paramilitary forces. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had ordered Umar to respect the law of the land and surrender.