: The impasse surrounding the Kerala Law Academy Law College took a curious turn on Tuesday with the management agreeing to keep Principal P. Lekshmi Nair out of the post for five years.
The Students Federation of India (SFI)’s pact with the management and the subsequent decision to call of the strike has divided the agitators with all the other student organisations declaring their intention to continue with their agitation. They have also called for a State-wide education bandh on Wednesday. A related demonstration undertaken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding the Principal’s arrest turned violent with the police resorting to lathicharge to quell the protest. The party has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Thiruvananthapuram district in protest against the alleged police excess.
The decision of the college authorities came close on the heels of talks they had with a SFI delegation led by SFI State secretary M. Vijin and State president Jaick C. Thomas. Emerging from the discussions, they claimed victory in their agitation and said that the management had accepted all of their demands.
College director N. Narayanan Nair told mediapersons that Ms. Nair would also not remain on the campus as a faculty member for the next five years.
Vice Principal M.M. Madhavan Potti would discharge the duties of Principal during the period. Dismissing the students’ concern that Ms. Nair could seek legal recourse to reverse the decisions, Mr. Nair said that she would not pursue any such options and would abide by the management’s stance. In the meantime, she could be made the director of the academy’s research centre, which functioned outside the college campus, he said. He said the regular classes would recommence on Wednesday and police protection would be sought, if the need arose, to ensure the smooth functioning of the college.
Notably, the management promised not to pursue any vindictive action to students who took part in the agitation. They had also agreed to conduct college union polls soon after the completion of the first-year admission process.
The developments proved inadequate to convince the AISF, KSU, MSF and ABVP agitators’ combine to toe the SFI’s line. They reiterated that they would not budge from their position until Ms. Nair tendered her resignation.
