The Kerala Students Union (KSU), student wing of the Indian National Congress, has announced a bandh of all educational institutes in the state on Thursday. The bandh is to protest the lathi charge by the police on KSU students who undertook a march to the secretariat on Wednesday.
According to reports, several KSU workers including women were injured during the scuffle on Wednesday. The protest march was undertaken against the LDF government’s new education policy and the Khader committee report.
According to reports, the police said that as the protest march reached the secretariat, students, including girls, tried to breach the barricade placed by the police.
They also allegedly started throwing stones at the police and raised slogans against the government, according to reports.
The scuffle with the police began after KPCC (Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee) President Mullapally Ramachandran, who had inaugurated the protest, and other Congress leaders left the venue.
Several KSU workers alleged that they were brutally attacked and the police refused to take them to the hospital. Further, pictures of several activists who were lying down on the road after being beaten up have also surfaced. In the photos, it is evident that these activists have been injured after being beaten up during the protests.
There are also allegations against police officers of manhandling women activists and showering abuses on them.
The LDF government has passed a new education policy as per the recommendations of the Khader committee report. The policy included merging of High school with higher secondary education and combining all departments into a single directorate.
Several criticisms have been raised against the report’s recommendations, and the higher secondary teachers have also protested against the same.
The Congress-led UDF has been demanding that the government put the ‘half-baked report’ on hold.