Following a gruesome ragging incident at the Government Nursing College hostel in Kerala’s Kottayam district, Congress leader and the Leader of the Opposition, VD Satheesan, urged the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to disband its student organisation, the Students Federation of India (SFI).
“This incident comes close on the heels of the tragedy at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Wayanad, where SFI students were implicated in the alleged suicide of junior student JS Sidharthan. In Kottayam, the only difference is it did not escalate to murder. The CPI(M) should immediately disband the SFI,” said Satheesan. Several readers of the Congress including Youth Congress state president Rahul Mamkoottathil had alleged that the perpetrators belong to SFI.
Reacting to the allegations, PM Arsho, Kerala State Secretary of SFI, told the media that the accused are not SFI members and the nursing college does not have a unit of any students organisation. Arsho said KGNSA has no connection with SFI.
Following the ragging complaint of a first year student, five senior students were arrested by the Gandhinagar police on February 11. The accused, Samuel Johnson (20) and Jeeva NS (18), Rahul Raj (22), Vivek NV(21), and Rijil Jith (20) were members of the Kerala Government Nursing Student Association (KGNSA), an organisation affiliated to CPI(M). Rahul is the state secretary of the KGNSA. Following the arrest, the organisation expelled all five of them.
“The CPI (M) is shielding the accused in the Wayanad incident, and the key accused in the Kottayam incident is linked to the SFI. What’s even worse is that the incident at Kottayam took place in the hostel for Scheduled Caste students,” added Satheesan.
On Thursday, the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student wings of the Congress and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, took out protest marches to the college and the police had to use water cannons to disperse the protesters.
(with With inputs)