Meena, an Anganwadi worker, says she has been distressed since she saw the news on TV.
Watching the news flashes on TV at a neighbour's house in Bihar's Begusarai district, Meena Devi breaks down. "Please do not call my son a terrorist," said the mother of Jawaharlal Nehru University student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar who was
arrested for charges of sedition on Friday.
"We are constantly watching TV after we got to know that Kanhaiya has been arrested. I hope police does not beat him too much. He has never disrespected his parents, forget the country. Please do not call my son a terrorist. He cannot be one," his mother Meena Devi told Press Trust of India over phone from Bihar.
Meena, an Anganwadi worker who earns Rs 3,500 per month, says she and her eldest son Manikant are the sole bread- winners for the family as her 65-year-old husband has been bedridden for seven years due to paralysis.
Kanhaiya's father Jaishankar Singh, who was a farmer, said his son is being framed into the case for opposing "Hindutva politics".
Students at the JNU have been protesting against the police action on campus. (PTI photo)
"My son has been part of so many campaigns against the BJP government, be it on fellowships or suicide of a Dalit student in Hyderabad University. He is being victimised for his opposition to Hindutva politics," he said.
"Kanhaiya can never be anti-national. There is no question of his following an ideology of anti-nationalism. He is a nationalist like hundreds of thousands of youths of his age. He cannot insult 'Mother India'," he said.
Last year in September, Kanhaiya swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union polls with 1,029 votes to become its president - the first from the All India Students Federation (AISF), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
His brother, Prince, who is preparing for competitive exams, said the entire family has been associated with CPI for generations.
Kanhaiya was arrested earlier this week in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy registered over the holding of an event at JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. During the event, anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.