Social media was in uproar on Friday amid claims that a video that first went viral showing JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others shouting slogans seeking Kashmir’s “azadi” may have been doctored with a superimposed audio clip.
The controversial tape emerged from a February 9 event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, causing nationwide outrage as police arrested Kanhaiya Kumar and cracked down on students in the university.
Kanhaiya Kumar, president of the JNU Students Union and from the CPI-affiliated AISF, was arrested on sedition charges for allegedly raising the “anti-national” slogans at the event organised to commemorate Kashmiri separatist Afzal Guru, who was hanged for the 2001 parliament attack.
The student leader has denied the allegations.
The first video clip fuelled widespread protests and counter-protests, the target being the JNU, where Left student unions have traditionally held sway.
It now appears that Kanhaiya Kumar and the others accused of sedition at the JNU event never shouted slogans demanding freedom for Jammu and Kashmir from India.
A new viral video, said to be the original clip of the event, shows that the students indeed raised slogans for “freedom” – from poverty, fascism, “sanghwaad” (RSSism), feudalism, capitalism, Brahminism and inequality.
The first video clip was telecast by some TV channels including Zee News, Times Now and India TV. ABP News ran the supposedly original video on Thursday evening.
Later in the day, India Today analyzed the videos saying that the audio had been doctored.
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