The Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) has accused the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) of resorting to violence after the recent college union polls.
Addressing the media here on Friday, KSU State president K.M. Abhijith said that several activists of the organisation had been brutally assaulted by the SFI- DYFI cadre across the State simply because they had won the elections, defeating their traditional rivals. Some winners were not even allowed to enter campuses, and several candidates were detained so that they could not participate in voting for the posts of other office-bearers of college unions, he added.
An office-bearer of the KSU at the Deva Matha College at Kuravilangad in Kottayam was brutally attacked for coordinating elections. Similarly, KSU members at colleges in Kannur, Thrikkarippur, Kozhikode, Thrissur, and Idukki were beaten up. The police had no choice but to remain mute spectators to the violence, Mr. Abhijith said.
According to him, the SFI-DYFI combine had targeted KSU activists, as the CPI(M) leadership had blindly supported the violence unleashed by them. On the other hand, they were scared of taking on communal outfits like the ABVP and the Campus Front, a feeder outfit of the SDPI.
The SFI leadership had been capitalising on the martyrdom of Abhimanyu, a student of Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, for the polls. At the same time, it had conspired with the SDPI for gaining political mileage ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the KSU leader alleged.
Mr. Abhijith said that the KSU had called a State committee meeting with the participation of former presidents of the organisation, who are now senior leaders of the Congress, to find a democratic solution to the issue of violence against its workers. The meeting will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
He also accused the State government of being inept in handling issues on campuses even as “it shamelessly fumbled on issues such as the alleged rape of a Catholic nun by a bishop, and a party worker getting sexually abused by a legislator. This government had succumbed to the politics of the Church and religious communities,” Mr. Abhijith said.