THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The timing wouldn’t have been more apt. A detailed study on ‘Left Governments and the Media in Kerala’ has fetched SFI national vice- president Sindhu Joy a PhD in political science when her party is crying foul over the attitude of the media towards the LDF Government.
The Kerala University Syndicate on Tuesday decided to award a PhD to Sindhu for the study conducted under D. Jayadeva Das, political scientist and former Registrar of Kerala University.
“I feel the media in general doesn’t give a fair treatment to left governments. The study also revealed that the reports in media about the initiatives of Left governments were influenced by corporate agenda,’’ Sindhu told ‘Expresso’.
She had begun the research in 2003 in the Department of Political Science after completing her MPhil from the same department. “In fact, I have been practising the SFI slogan - study and struggle - all these years,’’ said Sindhu.
In 2005, SFI had launched a bloody struggle against the self-financing college policy of the then UDF government when she was the president. Sindhu was badly hurt when the police attacked the strikers with grenades.
Later, in 2006, when she was about to finalise the thesis, Sindhu was jailed by the police after slapping criminal charges on her with regard to a mass protest. She had to spend 24 days in jail before getting bail.
The two election fights that had pole-vaulted her to stardom also happened during her research days. She fought the Assembly election from Puthuppally in 2006 and the Lok Sabha election from Ernakulam this year. “But, I never dumped studies even during the campaign. The work on the thesis moved on, even though at a slow pace,’’ she said.
The future? “There are a couple of offers from foreign universities for doing post-doctoral fellowships. I have to discuss with my family and the party. I can take a decision only after getting their consent,’’ said Sindhu, who also has a Bachelor’s degree in education and a post-graduate diploma in journalism.
trivandrum@epmltd.com