Details of the episode have now largely been forgotten, though what remains from the period is the widespread public perception that JNU students are ‘anti-nationals’ and Kumar and his fellow students are enemies of India. This incident was the start of a new kind of propaganda in Indian politics, where news channels, politicians and social media came together to create a perception based on flimsy evidence, and cemented that perception even as a slow-acting judicial system failed to render any opinions on the actual evidence.
