Kerala: 'CPM leaders trying to sabotage agitation', alleges MG University research student

She said that the CPM and Higher Education Minister R Bindu were trying to scuttle the case against former director of IIUCNN Prof Nandakumar Kalarickal.

Deepa P Mohanan at the venue of her hunger strike in front of MG University campus in Kottayam

KOTTAYAM:  Deepa Mohanan, the Mahatma Gandhi (MG) University research student who has been protesting against caste discrimination in the university, alleged CPM leaders were trying to sabotage her agitation.

In a Facebook post, she said that the CPM and Higher Education Minister R Bindu were trying to scuttle the case against former director of International and Inter University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IIUCNN) Prof Nandakumar Kalarickal. She also took offence to the governor’s request to solve the issue amicably.

"CPM leaders have intervened in favour of Nano Centre director Nandakumar Kalarikkal. While CPM leader KK Shailaja tried to get the complaint withdrawn, VN Vasavan has been trying to sabotage the case," she wrote in the post.

"What can one expect from the higher education minister, who is the wife of the party secretary?" she wrote. She also questioned sincerity of the minister's stand favouring her. "Due to CPM’s fascist attitude, I have reached at a point where I might have to quit my studies," she alleged.

Meanwhile, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had urged the university authorities and the research student to arrive at a compromise to break the present impasse. Rejecting the governor's appeal, Deepa termed his failure to visit or listen to her woes as a serious lapse on his part.