On Friday (1st March), Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar courted controversy after he mistook the deadly H1N1 visa for a visa category used by Indian youth to migrate to other nations.
He made the remarks while speaking about the plight of 20 Indians who work as the support staff of the Russian army and are still stuck in the Eastern European nation.
“The government should take responsibility for any mishap that happens with the youth who are forced to leave India due to the circumstances here,” Kanhaiya Kumar claimed.
“The government should tell us how these Indians settled abroad. Did they go on a student visa, work visa, tourist visa? What is the visa category? Is it H1N1? The government can only tell us that,” the former JNU student said.
Kanhaiya Kumar, who holds a PhD in African Studies, seemed to forget that H1N1 is not a visa category but the swine flu virus. According to Mayo Clinic, the H1N1 virus came into existence during the flu outbreak of 2009-2010.
It is essentially an influenza virus that infects humans, birds and pigs. The H1N1 flu was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2009 and it claimed that the lives of 2.84 lakh people.
The Swine flu virus is now one of the strains responsible for seasonal flu. It is thus surprising that Kanhaiya Kumar, who enrolled at JNU’s Centre for African Studies in 2011, did not know that H1N1 is not a visa category but a virus.
Even if we give the benefit of the doubt to Kanhaiya Kumar and assume that he meant the H1B visa, it is only applicable in the context of the United States and not Russia (which was the topic of discussion) at the press conference.
Lack of honeymoon destination in Bihar
During the press conference, Kanhaiya Kumar was also seen claiming how the people of Bihar were forced to move elsewhere in search of employment.
The Congres leader also lamented the absence of good destinations for honeymoon in Bihar, adding that the residents of his native State are thus forced to travel elsewhere.
