Kavita Krishnan

Early background and personal life

Kavita was born to Tamil parents in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. She grew up in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. Her father worked as an engineer at a steel plant while her mother taught English. Kavita has done MPhil in English Literature at JNU.

Early Activism

Kavita Krishnan became part of a theater group led by Arun Ferreira in St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and she would participate in street plays and protests. Her serious stint with political activism took place when she joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University where she earned her master's degree and was elected Joint Secretary of the Students' Union in 1995. She was a member of the All India Students Association while she studied in JNU. She became seriously involved with activism when she met the student leader Chandrashekhar Prasad who was also a student at JNU and a member of AISA. Fondly remembered as Chandu by the students of JNU even today, Chandrashekhar was murdered along with fellow CPI(ML) leader Shyam Narayan Yadav on 31 March 1997 in Siwan, Bihar while addressing a street meeting. Kavita Krishnan's life as an activist took a serious turn after this incident. Chandrashekhar, who had been the President of the JNU Students' Union the year before Kavita Krishnan was elected the Joint Secretary, was the first to recognise her passion and to suggest her to work full-time for women's rights. Following Chandu's murder, thousands of JNU students participated in mass demonstrations, demanding action against former Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian, Mohammad Shahabuddin whose men, they alleged, had carried out the attack. Kavita Krishnan was part of the protests in Delhi, where the student protesters were attacked by Laloo Yadav's men at Bihar Bhawan. She spent eight days in jail for her participation in the protests.

Role in 16 December protests

While emerging as one of the most influential activists during the massive anti-rape protests that followed the rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in India's capital city, New Delhi, Kavita Krishnan has contributed substantially to shaping the discourse of the movement. One of the speeches that she made at the protest outside Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's house quickly went viral on YouTube and has received over 60,000 views so far. In this speech, she laid out a kind of manifesto of the movement, one that represented a major break from the securitised, protectionist standpoint which was rife at that time and articulated women's freedom as the main demand. In this speech, she argued against the prevalent commonsense that death penalty was the solution to rape. She pointed out that the conviction rates for rape in India are extremely low and, therefore, methods such as chemical castration and death penalty can't act as deterrents. She made a strong case for arguing on the basis of women's "unqualified freedom", "freedom without fear". Her views on death penalty have been influential in shaping the discourse around rape in the aftermath of the post 16 December anti-rape protests. The demand for "Freedom Without Fear" became a rallying point for anti-rape protesters, and Kavita Krishnan's views on "Freedom" were extensively published.

Criticism

Kavita Krishnan has been criticized for her perceived double standards when it comes to the issue of free speech. Kavita has also been criticised for her tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi stalking daughters. In 2016, Kavita Krishnan was severely criticized for calling the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani as extrajudicial killing.