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Kanhaiya Kumar (born January 1987) is an Indian political activist who served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union and leader of the All India Students Federation (AISF). He served as National Executive Council member of Communist Party of India. He joined Indian National Congress on 28 September 2021 and has been appointed as the AICC in-charge of the National Student's Union of India.
Kanhaiya Kumar studied till Class VI at Madhya Vidyalaya, Masnadpur, before joining R. K. C. High School in Barauni. During his school days, Kumar took part in several plays and activities organised by IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association), a left-leaning cultural group going back to the days of India's freedom struggle. He cleared his Class X board exams in 2002 with a first division. After school, Kumar joined the Ram Ratan Singh College at Mokama, taking up science in Class XI-XII. He then graduated with a degree in geography from the College of Commerce, Arts and Science, Patna in 2007, earning a "first-class".
In September 2015, Kumar became president of the JNU Students' Union, representing the AISF.
In March 2016, Kumar stated in an interview, "the first inspiration who made me want to join politics was Bhagat Singh. Then the path continued into Ambedkar, Gandhi and Marx, and also to Birsa Munda and Jyotirao Phule...."
Kumar's autobiography, Bihar to Tihar: My Political Journey was published in October 2016. The book describes his life from his childhood days to his political involvement in Delhi.
On 29 April 2018, he was elected to the party national council of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Later in 2019, he was inducted into CPI national executive council.
| 2019 Indian general election | Begusarai | rowspan="2" | CPI | Lost | 22.02% | Giriraj Singh | 57.01% | |
| Tanweer Hassan | 16.17% | |||||||
| 2024 Indian general election | North East Delhi | Lost | 44.16% | Manoj Tiwari | 53.1% |
In the slogan he demands Azadi from starvation, cronyism, casteism, communalism and sanghwads referring to the Sangh Parivar, and demands the Azadi of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar, Jyotirao Phule and Birsa Munda, ending with Inquilab Zindabad. The slogans in the later renditions also attach the names of various political activists, journalists and academics who are imprisoned on sedition and other changes for long durations, sometimes for years without a trial.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its linked students union the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad have tried to frame the slogans as anti-national and seditious. Videos of the sloganeering were also spread through various news broadcasts like that of Zee News and Arnab Goswami at Times Now and later Republic TV which brought national attention to it and lifted Kanhaiya Kumar into mainstream limelight but the content was altered. The news broadcasts depicted sloganeering of "Bharat tere tukde tukde honge" and caused widespread outrage. The term "tukde tukde gang" was coined from here and used extensively by BJP since then. Sudhir Chaudhury boasts Zee created ‘tukde tukde gang’, Nidhi Razdan grills Pavan Verma, The Print, 22 January 2020.
Forensic experts on later analysing the videos said that they were doctored with a different voice-over overlaid on an original video. The videos were never admitted as evidence in court.
Kumar was assaulted on multiple occasions when brought to the Patiala House court for hearings regarding the matter. A Supreme Court-appointed panel later confirmed that the policemen present at the Court were responsible for the security lapses.
On 2 March 2016, Kumar was granted interim bail for 6 months by the Delhi High Court, conditional on an undertaking that he would not "participate in any anti-national activity." Justice Pratibha Rani noted that there were no recordings of Kumar participating in anti-national slogans. A separate magisterial investigation appointed by the Delhi Government concluded that it did not find any evidence of Kumar participating in anti-national slogans.
Following his release from jail, Kumar faced death threats. A leader of the BJP's youth wing offered 5 lakh as a reward to anyone who cut off Kumar's tongue. Posters were put up in New Delhi offering 11 lakh as a reward to anyone who killed Kumar. The court later acquitted him of any charge because it was found that he wasn't present in the campus at the time the police tried to establish that the alleged slogans were said to have been made by him.
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