Court raps Kerala govt for violence on campuses

The Kerala High Court yesterday criticised the state’s communist government for allowing violence on campuses in the name of politics.

A division bench headed by chief justice Rishikesh Rai observed that a recent murder was the result of the state’s failure to enforce a ban on campus politics.

A pro-government Students Federation of India (SFI) leader was killed during clashes with another group at the Maharaja’s College campus here on July 2.

While hearing a petition against the government for not enforcing the ban, the court rejected the state’s argument that the murder of M Abhimanyu was an isolated incident.

The court reminded the state’s counsel that the 20-year-old BSc student was from a low-income family whose loss was irreparable while the politicians always gain from such murders.

“Children from economically backward families are joining (the state-run) colleges, and the state must create an academic atmosphere there,” the chief justice observed.

“You can hold your beliefs and spread them. But not allowing others the same freedom is intolerance. No murder should happen on the campus,” the court observed. The division bench asked the state to submit a proposal within three weeks to regulate politics on campuses.

L S Ajoy, 50, moved the court seeking strict instructions to the state to enforce the ban after the murder, allegedly by the Campus Front of India which is desperate to enter the SFI fiefdom.

Abhimanyu belonged to a Tamil migrant family working on a tea plantation in the hilly district of Idukki. His teachers and friends say he was a wellmannered and brilliant student. The SFI claimed that he was the party’s 34th martyr.

In 2004, the court upheld the rights of college authorities to ban politics on the campus which most of the private colleges too followed.

The issue was challenged in court many times but the latter held on to its earlier position that it was up to the authorities to permit or ban political activities in their campuses.

On October 13 last year, the court directed the state to end political activities on the campus and give police protection to institutions against disruption of classes.

The MES College in Ponnani, Malappuram, had moved court against the SFI, a feeder out of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM, for unleashing violence on its campus. The court then issued strict orders against strikes and protests on the campus and asked the authorities to remove tents erected for demonstrations and expel strikers.

The court also ordered the police to provide protection to colleges on request stating that student politicians were resorting to strikes to force authorities to give in to their unjustifiable demands.

The court, in its order, observed that student groups could move appropriate forums with their demands if these were justified instead of resorting to violence and coercion. It reminded students that they were at the colleges to study and not for building a political career. Those students wanting to practice politics by disrupting academic activities must quit, the court said.

Campus politics often turn into violence against teachers and there have even been instances of students even preparing a symbolic funeral of a principal and burning the chair of another – both lady heads of two century-old institutions.