After a 21-year-old college student, who was a member of the Students Federation of India (SFI) was stabbed to death just outside his college in Kerala’s Idukki on January 10 and some Youth Congress workers were arrested for killing him, the state Congress chief K Sudhakaran has reacted saying, "Our children (youngsters in Congress) are not like earlier, they are now determined".
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, January 12, he also said that the CPI(M) is happy about the martyrdom of Dheeraj Rajendran, and that the party is celebrating it. "CPI(M) has intentionally grabbed this martyrdom. They are not sad, but happy about it. This death is a result of violence created by CPI(M) and SFI,” said the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President K Sudhakaran.
"Usually in technical colleges, the Kerala Students Union was weak, but this time it's not the same. Our youngsters have come out daringly. We won in four college elections, even in this college (Idukki Government Engineering College) election, KSU will win. To prevent that, DYFI goons are camping outside the college,” he alleged.
The cremation of Dheeraj will be done on a piece of land bought by CPI(M) and they would construct a martyr's tomb there. However, Sudhakaran said that the CPI(M) did this out of happiness.
There was criticism that the comments by Sudhakaran were provocative, and he has made such statements earlier too, soon after taking charge as President of KPCC.
After the murder of Dheeraj, the KPCC president also said that in the death tally, KSU has highest number of martyrs. "Is it because of the policy by Kodiyeri or Pinarayi that SFI has turned all the college campuses into a violence spot? The dead SFI workers are not even one-third the number of KSU students who died. Who is responsible for all those murders?” he said.