The Kerala police have lodged a First Information Report (FIR) for a poster signed by the Students Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the CPI(M), in two government colleges on Friday.
The poster in question, which was written in Malayalam, appeared on the walls of Thalassery's Government Brennen college and the Government ITI college in Malampuzha, Palakkad on Friday evening. The full text of the poster reads,"This India is not my country. These horrible people are not my brothers and sisters. I do not love a country like this. In its present situation, I do not take any pride. I feel ashamed to live with these terrorists in the present situation in India."
The poster was possibly a reference to the recent communal violence in north-east Delhi, where rightwing groups clashed with those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
While the first two lines of the poster read similar to India's national pledge which begins with 'India is my country, All Indians are my brothers and sisters', the state police have denied any correlation between the national pledge and the posters.
However, the Thalassery police filed a suo motu case in the incident under section 153 of the IPC (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot). No persons have been named in the FIR.
"We are yet to identify the accused persons and confirm if the poster was stuck by SFI students. So far an FIR has been lodged and investigations are ongoing," a police officer from Dharmadom police station told TNM.
In Malampuzha, an FIR was lodged against SFI under section 153 of the IPC. It was based on a complaint by certain students of the college who accused two members of the SFI youth committee of sticking the poster. However, no individual has been booked so far and the police are currently investigating the case.