THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thousands of LDF workers participated in the march and public meeting organised by the Left-backed Higher Education Protection Committee on Tuesday in protest against an alleged attempt to saffronise the higher education sector in the state. The mega protest was taken out in view of the governor's recent interventions in the functioning of universities in the state. The protest organised by the higher education protection committee did not have the participation of LDF leaders including the CM and ministers, holding constitutional positions.
Opening the public meeting CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury accused that the governor's actions were in line with the agenda of the BJP and the RSS to saffronise educational institutions.
The situation is unbecoming for a healthy democracy, he said. He said the governor's interventions were not something purely connected with procedural matters. They were policy matters. "The struggle we are launching today is not a personal one but a policy matter struggle. There is nothing personal against the governor. Personally, I have known the governor for more than three decades. This is a matter concerning the higher education in the country and hence serious," he said.
He said the governor-government conflicts in university matters were not something new. It had happened in states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Telangana and Maharashtra. The role of the governor as a constitutional position is now being reduced to that of an office advancing the political objectives of the central government and the ruling BJP. This is not the role of the governor as laid down in the constitution, he said.
Yechury said the issue involved centre-state relations as well. " Education is in the concurrent list of the constitution. The state government has an equal right to decide educational policies. But now states are being bypassed and the centre is taking unilateral decisions. The new Education Policy is an example. It was brought during the covid pandemic and unilaterally imposed. Controlling education is a very important aspect of the political design of the BJP and the RSS to convert secular democratic India into a fascist Hindutva rashtra of their liking. For that they require control over the education and consciousness of our youths, he said.
The LDF organised the protest along with DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. DMK leader Tiruchi Siva along with noted educationist B Ekbal, CPM state secretary MV Govindan, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, LDF leaders Mathew T Thomas, PC Chacko, Kadannappally Ramachandran, Jose K Mani and Pannian Raveendran attended the protest gathering.