Did JNU Student Leader Kanhaiya Kumar Fail His Exams? No.
Arjun Sidharth
Real journalism holds power accountable
Since 2015, The Wire has done just that.
But we can continue only with your support.
Former JNUSU president and student leader Kanhaiya Kumar has failed his exam for the 11th time in JNU is the claim put forward on social media. On Twitter, a section of users tweeted the information that Kanhaiya has failed 11 times in the JNU exam and slammed him for wasting taxpayers’ money. The following tweet by a Twitter account called Shanknaad was tweeted over 1900 times.
The youth leader has many detractors who latched on to this information and targeted him. Among them on Twitter was Suhel Seth.
Later when it was pointed out that no university conducts examination for a PhD and that it requires submission of a thesis, the self-proclaimed marketing maven tried hard to wriggle out. This message has also been circulating on Facebook. On the page 'I Support Ajit Doval' which has over 1.6 million followers, it was uploaded on April 20 and has been shared over 9000 times at the time of writing.
Many individual users have uploaded it which suggests that it is being shared on WhatsApp as well. A video on YouTube has also been uploaded with this claim by a person named Rahul Kedia.
Speaking to Alt News, Kumar said, “This information is totally fake. There is no exam for PhD. I am a final year student. My thesis is in the final stage and will be submitted by July 21, 2018. The subject of my thesis is ‘social transformation in South Africa’. I enrolled in JNU for the integrated MPhil-PhD program in 2011 which is of 7 years’ duration. I commenced my PhD in 2013. I suspect that someone just created a message with this rumour which then started to circulate. I haven’t even been in JNU for 11 years. This is my 7th and final year.” Kumar also tweeted the same.
Student leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar and Shehla Rashid have often been at the receiving end of misinformation and the narrative that they are wasting the hard earned money of honest taxpayers by prolonging their education and indulging in politics in the meantime is often used to target them.
This article was published at Alt News. You can read the original article here.
This article went live on April twenty-fourth, two thousand eighteen, at thirty-two minutes past two in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.