Left parties call Begusarai bandh for Kanhaiya Kumar's release

A one-day bandh call given by Left parties in Begusarai, the native district of jailed JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, today evoked a mixed response.

Normal attendance was reported in schools, colleges and offices even as CPI and CPI(M) leaders blocked NH-31 near the bus stand by stopping vehicles and protestors appealed to shopkeepers to down their shutters.

Shatrughan Prasad Singh, former MP from Begusarai and member of CPI Central Committee, told PTI that the one-day bandh was called for the immediate release of Kanhaiya.

Singh said the bandh also demands dropping of sedition charge against Kanhaiya and registration of a case under 307 (attempt to murder) against lawyers who assaulted him at Patiala House court.

Kanhaiya's house is in Masnadpur Tola in Bihat village under Barauni police station, about 30 km from the town headquarters of Begusarai.

His father, Jaishankar Singh, who has suffered a paralytic stroke and mother Meena Devi, who is an Aganwadi worker, stay in a dilapidated house.

After completing MA from Nalanda Open University in Bihar, Kanhaiya had joined JNU in 2011 to pursue an MPhil in International Studies. He is now in the final year of his PhD.

Kanhaiya's younger brother Prince, is a civil services aspirant based in Delhi and is now in his native village to be with his parents after the JNU incident. He told PTI that the entire family was eagerly waiting for Kanhaiya's release.

"Father, mother and other members of family and neighbours are glued to the TV waiting anxiously for when Kanhaiya would be freed and the sedition charge dropped," Prince said.