KOCHI: J Arun Babu, state president of All India Students Federation (AISF), still remembers the day he was forced to spend an entire day in University College, Thiruvananthapuram, half-naked.“It was two years ago when I was AISF state joint secretary,” he recalled.
His fault: Raising voice against the injustice meted out to his party workers. The culprits: Members of Students’ Federation of India (SFI)
“We had gone to the college to support the candidature of our leader Manimekhala in the college union election. However, as part of the pressure tactics to have her nomination withdrawn, they (SFI activists) thrashed me inside the campus. They even snatched my ‘mundu’ and took out a rally with it,” he said.
“I stood in front of the college half-naked until the classes were over for the day. No student leader would want to go through such an experience,” said Arun. AISF and SFI are student outfits of ruling LDF allies CPI and CPM, respectively.
Arun’s is not a one-off case. Rather, it is a pointer to the countless campus clashes helmed by SFI in Kerala in the past decade.
Now, following the clash in University College which resulted in the stabbing of final-year degree student Akhil, SFI’s tyrannical approach in campus politics is facing criticism from all quarters.
SFI’s attack against AISF workers, their ally in national politics, across the state for the past decade has come under scanner.
“When Left politics is facing a huge challenge in the state, the criminal mindset of a few SFI leaders is flourishing on our campuses. Outside the state, they want us to be a part of a grand coalition. However, in Kerala, they treat us as outcasts,” said Arun.
He said SFI’s attacks on AISF workers at Government Sanskrit College, Thiruvananthapuram, CMS College, Kottayam, Kerala Varma College, Thrissur and Government Law College, Kozhikode, in the past few years were examples of this. “They seek our support only when they feel SFI won’t win on its own,” he said.
Many have demanded that SFI should realise the ground reality and change its approach.
“The coordination meetings of student bodies under LDF call for larger alliance against fascist trends outside Kerala. However, our leaders fall victim to SFI’s fascist approach here to the extent that they have to literally limp and crawl to attend the meetings,” said Subesh Sudhakaran, AISF state secretary.