By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
The Kozhikode District Collector has mooted an all-party meeting on Thursday in connection with the violence, including attack on girls, at the Government College, Madappally. MLAs, representatives of political parties and students’ organisations, college authorities etc will take part in the meeting. Meanwhile, students yesterday besieged the principal accusing him of protecting the SFI workers who attacked the girls in the college. The infinite strike called by the opposition student organisations entered its third day on Thursday.
Students of the opposition parties have been on an infinite strike since Tuesday seeking action against the perpetrators of the attack against students including girls, which took place last Wednesday (September 20).
Meanwhile, the CPI (M) organized a ‘Secular Bahujan march’ to the Madappally Government College on Wednesday evening. The leaders of the party explained that the SFI workers were trying to prevent communal forces in the campus, and added that the CPI(M) would continue its support to its students’ wing on the matter. A press release published on the official Facebook page of the Kozhikode District CPI (M) accused the Muslim League, the SDPI and the Welfare Party of being communal forces trying to destroy the Madappally College. “The leaders of the Muslim League were indulging in violence in the name of the protest against the attack on students. The news being spread by the Fraternity Movement, the MSF and other communal parties are wrong, and are originated from their angst at the SFI’s victory in the campus elections,” said a statement released by the CPI (M) Kozhikode district secretariat. The so-called violence in the college was created by the Fraternity and other organisations and the SFI was wrongly accused, the statement added.
In another development, the college principal suspended four students in connection with the violence in and around the college – Jishnu and Sayooj from the SFI, Munavvir from the Kerala Students Union and Adil Ali from the Fraternity Movement. Those reportedly attacked by the SFI had complained against SFI activists, 13 of whom have been arrested by the police, but the college authorities took action against only two. The SFI too had reportedly complained that two students – Munavvir and Adil Ali, both of whom were attacked by the SFI and hospitalised on Wednesday – had attacked SFI workers and both the students have been suspended.
The United Democratic Students Front (UDSF) and the Fraternity Movement refuted the SFI’s claims that their workers had attacked the SFI workers.
“The Education Minister should intervene to put an end to the campus violence of the SFI,” said Dr MK Muneer, leader of the Muslim League and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Kerala. He was opening the protest march organized by the United Democratic Front (joint front of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League in Kerala) to the Madappally Government College on Monday. He alleged that the SFI was unleashing violence against its political rivals in the campus. He also reportedly accused that the college authorities and the police were not taking any action to end the stalemate. Meanwhile, there have also been reports of some violence after the UDF-led Bahujan march ended. Six students and a policeman were injured in the violence that took place when the UDF workers were returning back after the march. The police have arrested six people in connection with the violence, according to reports. The MSF organized a girls’ march to the Madappally Government College on Monday, protesting against the SFI’s attack on girls.
The Government College at Madappally in Kozhikkode district has been the stronghold of the SFI for long. Those who opposed the SFI formed an organization named Inqilab in 2014, in which supporters of the MSF, the KSU, the Fraternity Movement etc were present. The student organisations formed their own independent units in the campus last year only and they contested elections and won too, amid threats from the SFI. However, this year all seats were won by the SFI itself in the campus elections held early this month. Soon after the elections, postgraduate student Fahad (worker of the KSU) was reportedly attacked by SFI workers, and the college took no action against the attackers.
Students including girls were reportedly attacked by SFI workers in and around the college on September 19. Ajfan and Ijas, first-year degree students and workers of the MSF, were attacked in the campus. Adil Ali, Salwa Abdulkader and Safwana (workers of the Fraternity Movement) and Thamjitha (Kozhikkode district general secretary of the MSF women’s wing Haritha) were attacked outside the campus in the public road. The traders and autorikshaw drivers from the locality who tried to prevent the attack were also manhandled. Traders then held a hartal protesting the attack. The Fraternity Movement urged for a bandh of educational institutions on Monday (September 24). The MSF, the KSU and the Fraternity Movement organized protest marches and other programmes in different parts of the state against the SFI attack.