A Delhi court on Monday began sedition proceedings against former JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya five years after they became synonymous with dissent against the ruling BJP and their university captured the public imagination as the fulcrum of this resistance.
By Monday the trio had aged beyond their years, with strands of white hair, and the shadow of the case had prevented them pursuing teaching careers despite their having earned PhDs.
Kanhaiya is now a national council member of the CPI, Khalid has been in Tihar prison for the past six months on terror charges in connection with a speech linked to the Delhi riots, and Bhattacharya works for a think tank.