Even as efforts to find an amicable solution to the tussle at CMS College, Kottayam, continued on Saturday, both the agitating SFI activists and the College Protection Committee refused to budge from their stand.
Cyriac Thomas, chairman of the Minority Education Commission, visited the campus on Saturday. Talking to mediapersons, he said the agitation that had led to violent incidents on the campus had pained all people. “These are things that persons with common sense would never dare do,” he said.
Mr. Thomas said the Commission had so far not received any complaint from the College authorities. It would look into the matter if it gets a complaint.
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The College Protection Committee took out a march to protest against what they termed “an attack on a minority educational institution and an effort to destroy the institution.” The committee leaders said the management would not withdraw the disciplinary action taken against erring students.
On the other hand, SFI activists, who for the first time met the media since the controversy broke out, said they would intensify the agitation till the students against whom disciplinary actions was initiated were readmitted to classes. The SFI activists contested the management's claim that the student who had been dismissed from the college could continue his study in another college. The undergraduate programme in Communicative English with Culture as subsidiary was offered only at CMS College, they said. The students also raised allegations against the Principal.
The Kerala Council of Churches has denounced the violent incidents on the CMS College campus and said such developments would only help weaken the aided education sector and strengthen the self-financing stream in the long run.
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