By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter
A Dalit student was beaten allegedly by SFI activists at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam on Thursday. Vivek Kumaran, an M Phil student at School of Gandhian Thought at the university, was admitted at Kottayam Government Medical College with ailments and injuries after he was attacked by SFI activists at university hostel on Tuesday midnight.
According to sources close to Vivek, he was assaulted by SFI activists, who threatened him, saying, “You wouldn’t be spared if you try to politically organise against SFI”. Led by SFI unit secretary, he was beaten by four students, who broke into his room.
“SFI leaders might have been be provoked by Vivek and his friends’ move to form a collective in support for marginalised groups including transgenders,” Vivek’s friend told Twocircles.net.
“They called him a lot of casteist slurs and abused him,” sources added.
Vivek was taken to Kottayam Government Medical College while he developed ailments and vomiting. Vivek’s friends alleged police inaction, saying the police visited the victim at hospital only after they were pressed by the university authorities. However, Gandhi Nagar police have registered a case and started probe.
But it seems that after the incident, SFI activists at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam have started hate campaigns against Vivek. “SFI activists are now carrying campaigns against him portraying him as a ganja seller. They even say that Vivek brings minor girls to university hostel for sex work,” Vivek’s friend Swathy Soman told Twocircles.net.
According to Swathy, SFI activists have been largely intolerant against any opposition, and have used similar tactics of character assassinations against any potential opposition.
Vivek, who joined the university this academic year, is not associated with any organisation. He was working with Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS) as a counselor in Eranakulam district.
“We tried to form a collective. It was not aimed at politically opposing or resisting SFI,” Swathy said. In a written statement issued by Vivek, he underwent casteist abuse.
“They rushed into my room. And shouted that “how did you dare stand up against SFI?” the statement said. SFI activists issued death threats to the victim, according to the statement, if he dared to complain against them.