Tension gripped Maharaja’s College campus on Wednesday afternoon following a scuffle between activists of Students Federation of India (SFI) and Fraternity Movement, a students organisation supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami, over the alleged unauthorised opening of the union office.
Three activists from both sides got admitted to hospital claiming to have been injured by the other side. The situation was brought under control by the Central Police after being alerted by the college Principal, K. Jayakumar .
The union office on the campus was locked up following a decision reached at an all-party meeting convened by the Principal citing that the term of the union had expired. Tension erupted after SFI activists opened the union office and the Fraternity Movement staged a protest against this.
The Principal said that the lock of the union office was found broken following which skirmishes broke out between two sections of students on the campus. He said that a complaint was lodged with the police after the lock was found broken.
The SFI claimed that the union office was opened by its activists for working on the college magazine. “A few girls and a couple of boys were working on the magazine inside the union office when Fraternity Movement activists barged inside with provocative slogans. They even manhandled the girls and two of them were admitted to hospital with injuries. When the boys questioned this, they were also roughed up. If they had any complaint about the opening of the office, they should have complained to the Principal rather than create a ruckus,” said Arjun Babu, SFI area secretary, Ernakulam.
However, the Fraternity Movement shot down the allegations and claimed that it was SFI activists who roughed up its activists, including the unit president Muhammed Arhamsha, without any provocation. “Eight of us staged a protest outside the union office after lodging a complaint with the Principal when SFI activists, some of them not even students of the college, assaulted us. Three of our activists, including our president, suffered injuries and are admitted to hospital,” said M. Adil, a member of Fraternity Movement who participated in the protest.
Meanwhile, District Congress Committee president T.J. Vinod demanded closure of the SFI’s “torture room that functioned in the guise of the college union office”. He also accused the police and the Left-leaning teachers’ organisation at the college of giving tacit support for reopening the union room.
