JNU student Umar Khalid is an asset for a resurgent India. We must ensure he keeps speaking, even more than he does now.

He has cleverly turned a dubious shooting incident – from some accounts, he may not even have been at the spot when the shot was fired in the air – into a victimhood circus.

His Facebook plea for more security reminds one of traitors like Geelanis and Mirwaizs who we protect and feed.

“I want to state that there is a continuous threat to my life and limb. This has increased after today’s attempt on my life. I urge you to please take cognisance of this and provide me police security,” Umar writes.

Also read: ‘Umar Khalid was not even at spot when shot was fired’: Eyewitness punctures narrative

He talks about a hate campaign against him “going on for last two years. There is no evidence, only lies. There has been no charge sheet, only media trial. There are no arguments, only trolling”.

One may remind Khalid how Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit were made to rot in jail by his current backers, the Congress, for nearly a decade without trial or damning evidence, just to make the world believe that Hindus are terrorists.

Khalid is now part of the seminar circles, the wine-and-cheese circuit. Far away from the dungeons where Pragya nurses her cancer.

And should we have a trial of the anchors and opinion writers who made Pragya and Purohit terrorists? Should we call these ‘supari journalists’ co-conspirators and character assassins in one of India’s biggest political conspiracies?

But while the UPA regime strangled the voice of Pragya, Purohit and others it targeted, the Modi government must ensure that the Umar Khalids and Jignesh Mewanis are heard, loud and clear, by every citizen.

India needs now more than ever those who worship terrorists like Afzal Guru and Burhan Wani, call our soldiers fighting Pakistan-backed jihadis in Kashmir “assholes”, pose with placards when a child from one religion is raped and killed but stay silent when a kid of another religion is savaged.

One Lutyens columnist openly exhorted fellow “liberals” to “focus on caste” in order to create faultlines and divide India.

This lot must be allowed to advertise their hate. Their divisive chisel-work for anti-India powers working from the shadows must be exhibited round the clock. If they go after someone, it becomes a badge of honour for that person.

When their mikes fail, the government should pass them a new one instead of ever thinking of silencing them.

India must know its enemies inside, their agenda. If we don’t, we will be doomed to make the same mistakes we have made in history, shrunk both in terms of culture and geography over centuries by ceding our space to predators.

As we celebrate 71 years of Independence, we must know and understand those who want to see “tukde tukde” of this beautiful nation. Let them speak.