PALAKKAD: The Government Victoria College here which has been declared a centre of excellence by the State Government, is now bogged down by student unrest and political interference.
As one sees the police security personnel posted at the Krishnan Nair gates at the entrance one would wonder whether it is an academic institution.
The college which has been indefinitely closed, has in the recent past become a playground for political activists who have converted the college men’s hostel into a party office. No one seems to be concerned even after many students leaving the college with their transfer certificates in the last few months.
The reason for the current closure of the college is the SFI-ABVP clash which left nearly a dozen injured on both sides.
A minor incident involving some students who were confronted by another group for taking photos of girl students in their mobile phone has now been blown out of proportion and has resulted in many students being injured and admitted to various hospitals.
Similarly three months ago, the college was indefinitely closed for two weeks on the alleged issue of ABVP students destroying the flagmast put up by the SFI in front of the college. The incident subsequently led to the CPM and the BJP amassing cadres as a show of strength before the college disrupting traffic for hours together.
Subsequently, it also resulted in the issue of the involvement of N N Krishnadas MP in the incident being taken up by the CPM state committee.
The current issue, according to the SFI, was that the ABVP was sore that a group of Lakshadweep students had left their organisation to join the SFI. The ABVP on the other hand has charged that the SFI was instigating communal violence by aligning with NDF elements.
The scale of the politicisation of the violence can be gauged from the fact that Ratheesh, a junior sub-inspector of the North police station who prevented SFI state secretary Shamseer from visiting the college hostel and talking to the Lakshadweep students in the night was summarily transferred to the Walayar police station and later suspended.
There was not a soul to ask as to why Shamseer was visiting a college hostel when tensions were rife late in the night. Now the college has constituted a three-member enquiry commission consisting of senior teachers to look into the reasons and suggest remedies.
But the faculty at the college is agitated that nothing is being done to stem the rot which has crept in the form of politics of the worst kind.