Several student organisations are hoping to ride the momentum of the recent mutiny by a large section of University College students over the “tyranny” of Students Federation of India (SFI) leaders to make political inroads into the 153-year-old campus long reckoned to be a bastion of the Left student movement in Kerala.
The AISF, KSU, ABVP, Fraternity and Campus Front are at the forefront of the move. The police said they feared the attempts by rival student organisations to start units could devolve into clashes between them and the SFI.
Conflicts
A police investigator said the conflicts within the SFI had been hidden from public view for long and the disputes were hard to discern, except for party insiders till recently.
However, the probe into the near-fatal knife attack on Akhil has opened a window into the inner workings of the SFI and cast a harsh spotlight on the actions of its leaders and their involvement in crimes, including attacking the police.
It has opened a debate on how political patronage had helped SFI leaders indicted for crimes easily escape prosecution and raised questions about their alleged and often conflicting fealty to criminal gangs and “opposing factions” in the CPI(M) itself. Investigators said the seizure of college seals and unfilled answer sheets validated with Kerala University seals from the house of a suspect on Sunday indicated the chokehold the SFI had over the college administration.
The fear of organised copying and threat to invigilators had in the past often prompted the university and the PSC to conduct examinations at centres other than the college. The SFI had also come under criticism for allegedly using strong-arm tactics to intimidate rivals from seeking admission in University College. However, the backdoor entry of fundamentalist student movements through the Islamic History Department had foxed SFI leaders, prompting them to adopt a violent and confrontational approach to prevent opposing political activity on the campus.
The SFI hoped to retard the new energy gained by their rivals by constituting an ad hoc committee and expelling vitiated leaders.
