Former JNU student Umar Khalid, who had been booked for allegedly raising “anti-India slogans” along with then JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on February 2016, announced on Tuesday that he had successfully defended his PhD.

Announcing his achievement in a tweet, Mr. Khalid addressed Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that he had paid back the taxpayers for funding his education and asked when the PM was planning to do the same.

“Modi sahab, humne to takpayer ka hisab chukta kiya. Aur apne? [sic.],” he tweeted.

“Successfully defended my PhD today. So finally, it is Dr. Umar Khalid now,” Mr. Khalid said in another tweet.

He also thanked his supervisor and his external examiners. “A special thanks to the entire JNU community and several people (many of whom I don’t even know) who stood by me in the last few tumultuous years,” Mr. Khalid said.

In August last year, the JNU administration had created hurdles for Mr. Khalid when he submitted his PhD. The university had cited the punishments awarded to him and others in connection with the February 9, 2016, incident.

However, the HC had set aside the decision of an enquiry panel that was set up to probe the incident and had instructed the university not to take any “coercive action” against Mr. Khalid.

“This should come as a befitting reply to all those who had earlier said that students of JNU do not study. The body of work that Kanhaiya [Kumar], Anirban [Bhattacharya], I and others have produced should be the answer to all the spokespersons of the ruling party, who were of the opinion that we do not study,” Mr. Khalid had said after submitting it.

A student of history, his PhD title is “Contesting claims and contingencies of the rule on adivasis of Jharkhand.”