The Delhi high court has once taken objection to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid’s comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi made during his February 2020 speech in Maharashtra’s Amaravati, saying that he could have used “some other words” for the PM. It also sought to understand the context in which Khalid, in the speech, had used the words inquilab (a revolution) and krantikaari (revolutionary). On Friday, May 20, a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Bhatnagar heard Khalid’s bail appeal and sought to hear the said speech of Khalid for the third time. The bench had earlier said Khalid’s description in a 2020 speech of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak

Sangh and Hindu Mahasabha acting as “agents of the British” during the freedom struggle was interpreted by the Delhi high court as “giving the impression that only one community was fighting against the British”. Khalid filed his bail plea with the Delhi high court challenging a trial court’s order, which on March 24, dismissed his bail application. He has been charged and arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for his alleged conspiracy behind the northeast Delhi riots in February 2020. Referring to a certain portion of the speech where Khalid had referred to Prime Minister Modi, the court held that it was not in good taste. The speech is part of the charge sheet. Referring to the Gujarat administration’s action to build a wall in Ahmedabad in February 2020 to hide slums in February 2020 from then US President Donald Trump, Khalid had said, “Hamare desh ke pradhan mantri ko sharam aati hai … ki Donald Trump ko ye pata na chal jaye ki Hindustan mein sab changa si nahi hai… (The Prime Minister of our country is feeling ashamed… He does not want Donald Trump to know that everything is not alright in India…).”