C Ahamed Fayiz
Activists of Inquilab Students Movement were attacked by SFI hooligans at Government College, Madappally, Calicut today. Adhil Ali. A, a first year student who is pursuing BA political science, was brutally attacked by SFI goons. “We were locked up in the principal’s room and prevented from going outside the campus for hours. SFI hooligans threatened to kill us if we came outside”, said Adhil. “The female activists were even threatened with rape. How can a students’ organization which claims to stand for gender justice utter such words against a female student?” added Adhil who is the unit president of Inquilab of Government College, Madappally.
BA student Adhil who was beeaten by SFI
Inquilab activists had conducted a march last wednesday in solidarity with Trivandrum Kerala Law Academy students who have been in protest against the Principal and KLA Management. “The march was attacked by SFI cadres without any reason”, said Salwa, one of the female activists of Inquilab, who was also attacked along with others. SFI leaders explained that Inquilab activists raised derogatory slogans against the organization which provoked them. SFI GCM unit has declared an indefinite strike from tomorrow to dismiss Salwa Abdul Khader, distorting the fact that they attacked Inquilab activists including her.
The activists of Inquilab had filed a case last week against SFI cadres for attacking them. This time they were attacked for not withdrawing the case. The police has not registered that case yet as it is against the students’ wing of the ruling party ie., CPIM. There was an attempt to attack even the students at the premises of the hospital, but it was avoided only because, some among the public prevented them, the Inquilab activists said. Various student organisations like SIO and political parties like the Welfare Party of India protested against these continuous attacks of SFI on Inquilab.
Inquilab Students Movement, an organization formed by students from various political backgrounds, had been pointing out the undemocratic practices and fascistic tendencies of SFI in Madappally Government College. Activists of the organisation have been frequently attacked for the past three years for raising Dalit and Muslim issues in the campus. Over the past one month, members of SFI have been seen attacking Dalit and Muslim students for voicing their opinion on the control of the state campuses by upper-caste students, among other issues.
Meanwhile, there are also reports of an attack on a student, namely Jijesh, at University College, Thiruvanathapuram, by SFI goondas. Jijesh who went to watch a play at the College, was attacked when walking along with two other female friends, Soorya Gaya Gayathri and Asmitha Kabeer. “These two girls are the most immoral girls in the campus. If you walk along with them, we will file a case against you for having illicit relations with them. If you dare to file case against us, we will depict you and them as Ganja sellers and dealers in the campus” they threatened while beating him. Soorya Gayathri and Asmitha Kabeer had earlier raised their voice against undemocratic practices of SFI unit in the campus, which might have provoked SFI to attack them.
SFI indulges in slander against Salwa Abdul Khader on social media
Three weeks back, a Dalit student was beaten by SFI activists at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam. Vivek Kumaran, an M.Phil student at School of Gandhian Thought at the university, was admitted to Kottayam Government Medical College with ailments and injuries after he was attacked by SFI activists. Vivek was attacked for his alleged connection with Ambedkar Students Movement, which was formed by a group of students in the campus recently, which in turn provoked SFI. Vivek too was accused of being a Ganja dealer by SFI office bearers. It was in January last year that student activists of Inquilab Students Movement of Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, were attacked for raising voice for #JusticeforRohith.
The question asked by SFI hooligans while beating Fuad Muhammed, the president of Inquilab Maharajas, was “Who are you to raise voice for Rohith”? This year too Fuad Muhammad was attacked by SFI activists on January 19. Fuad’s mistake was that he ‘dared’ to organize Rohith Vemula Shahadat (martyrdom) day in the campus. It was the third time Fuad underwent a physical attack by SFI activists. “For the first time, I was beaten for calling a strike following Rohith Vemula’s death. SFI, which positions itself as custodian of marginalized sects, gets provoked when others try to raise voice for Dalits,” Fuad said. This author knows many campus activists from SIO, Campus Front and Dalit Movements who are violently attacked, isolated inside the campus by SFI for being member/s of any party other than SFI, or for participating in students’ union elections as independent candidates.
Students’ Federation of India has a long history of attacking students from marginalized communities whenever there was an attempt to form any other alternative political movements in campuses in Kerala. The attack on Dalit students when they tried to start DSM (Dalit Students Movement) some years ago in various colleges, including Maharajas College, is a classic example of intolerant and undemocratic politics of SFI. The recent conspiracy of SFI to pit Dalit students against each other, and use them to attack other Dalit students to avoid being charged with atrocity cases, and to mask the existence and preservation of caste hierarchies within the party proves how much they fear the uprising of Dalit, Muslim, Bahujan politics. The auto biographical writings of famous Dalit-Bahujan thinkers and activists like K.K Kochu, K.K Baburaj, A.K Vasu, M.B Manoj, O.P. Raveendran who have enough experiences of SFI fascism, also proves the Anti-Dalit Muslim Bahujan mentality of SFI in Kerala.
SFI needs Dalit and Muslim stooge soldiers, who obey them and not those who assert themselves. SFI has been perpetuating intellectual and physical violence against the organizational forms of these oppressed communities. SFI is now very keen to take up their concerns, a move which should be identified as an attempt to appropriate assertive politics of oppressed communities. Last month, current SFI Kerala State Secretary, M Vijin, had boasted of the traditions of SFI and the the culture of “progressive” campuses in Kerala. He had emphasized the need to smash the “Torture Corners” inside private colleges while speaking about the institutional murder of Jishnu, a student of Pambadi Nehru College. It is already evident from the recent historic protest at Kerala Law Academy that students’ unity, not SFI, itself is enough to lead a protest and win the battle. It is time to inform SFI leaders in Kerala to stop Stalinist terrorism in Kerala campuses first and then speak about freedom,democracy and socialism.
~~~
C Ahamed Fayiz is Assistant Editor of The Companion.
