THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 47 years after, reliving its painful and revolutionary memories, the then student prisoners of the Emergency will get together in the city on Friday. The remaining of the 24-member group, which took out the first-ever student protest march against the Emergency, will gather at University College.
They have been getting together to observe the day for many years now. Among the arrested were senior CPM leaders and former ministers M A Baby, G Sudhakaran, former speaker M Vijayakumar, former vice-chancellor J Prasad, retired Professor Madhavan Pillai, retired DySP Gopinath, former Punalur municipal chairman Advocate Suresh and Advocate Thomas Abraham.
Seventeen of the original 24 are still around. Seven died, with Vallikunnam Rajan passing away only a couple of weeks ago. B S Rajeev, Radhakrishnan, Rajasenan and Ezhukon Sasidharan were the others.
The SFI march on July 1, 1975 could well be the first student protest against the Emergency anywhere in the state. Since agitation was not permitted at the time, it was after much secret deliberation and planning that the students came together. One by one, they trickled in at University College.
A march was then taken out from the Spencer gate to the Secretariat. “The police were blissfully ignorant even after the march passed through Spencer Junction and AG’s office. The sudden protest took the authorities by surprise. The protestors kept raising slogans such as ‘Emergency in Arabian Sea!’. Passersby were intrigued, while KSRTC buses plying on the route stopped to take a look.
When the marchers were about to reach the Velu Thampy statue, the police rounded us up and took us into custody,” recalls Vijayakumar. In fact, Youth Congress members too beat up the prisoners, said Prasad. “Eight of us were from Sanskrit College. When we took out the march, we were ready to face anything, if need be, even die for our ideals. Since I was the main sloganeer, I came in for some ‘special treatment’ from the police. Prohibitory orders were in place from June 30. The police had surrounded both Sanskrit College and University College. They went back as there was no hint of a protest even after 11am.” he recalls.
The students were taken to Cantonment police station and tortured brutally. One of them -- J B Mohan, then a student at University College -- was wearing a vest on which he had written ‘Nothing to lose, but chains’. It cost him dearly. G Sudhakaran’s spectacles too were not spared the beating. They were remanded to the Attakkulangara sub-jail and later shifted to Poojapura Central Jail and they underwent six months’ imprisonment.
Vijayakumar, then SFI district secretary and Law College student, had already got a taste of Emergency by then. On June 26, Emergency was declared, he was taken into custody and had to undergo imprisonment for a day.