If there's one thing that Kanhaiya Kumar has achieved over the past month, it's getting under the skin of the central government. This was evident on Friday as Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu had some choice words for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president.

On Thursday night, Kumar gave a fiery, politically-charged speech at the JNU campus after being released on bail three weeks following his arrest on charges of sedition for chanting alllegedly anti-national slogans. The morning after, Naidu said the student leader "was getting free publicity and enjoying it" and advised him to focus on his studies instead.

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"They are all studying at a central university, where public money, people's money is involved, so they must do justice to the cause and they must study, that's all," Naidu said on Friday.

In a speech to his fellow students, Kumar had called for azadi in India and minced no words in his criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani. The 28-year-old received a rousing response on campus and praise outside, including from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

But Naidu was unimpressed. "Why are they getting into politics?" Naidu added. "If they are interested in politics, they can leave studies and join politics. Simple. Join your favourite party... favourite party is not even in single digit in Parliament."

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Kumar is a member of the All India Students Federation, the student wing of the Communist Party of India.

Naidu's jibe had social media abuzz. Some obvious questions for the former BJP president included whether he wanted the party's student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, to be disbanded. Others pointed to the fact that Naidu himself had once been a student leader. There was also some humour: