In a bizarre incident of its kind, students belonging to the SFI( the student wing of the CPI-M) at Gurudeva College of Advanced Students, Kozhikode, have issued a death threat to Sunil Bhaskar, the principal of the college. Bhaskar is known as a stickler for discipline and decorum and the SFI’s complaint against him arises for his refusal of permission to them to open a help desk outside his cabin in the college.
On Monday, when the college reopened for the new academic year and the four-year degree course was launched, the SFI had arranged a welcome party to the new comers as part of the student organization’s bid to establish its monopoly among the freshers. But the Principal requested them to have the merry making and other activities outside the college premises. This provoked the SFI chieftains who barged int his cabin shouting slogans and threatening him with dire consequences,” a member of the teaching faculty told The Pioneer.
Enraged by the Principal’s stance, the SFI leaders reportedly slapped and kicked him. But one of the SFI leaders accuse the principal of slapping him and he had to take recourse in the government hospital for treatment. “Our young comrade B R Abhinav is in a serious condition as a fall out of the Principal’s brutality. We will not allow the principal to enter the college if he continues with the tirade against the SFI leaders,”: said Navtej Mohan, area secretary of the SFI.
He also alleged that Abhinav is one of the strongest leaders in the region. “We will decide whether the Principal would be able to walk on his two legs. This is a statement being made by the SFI. When SFI makes a statement, we would have done it and we do things about which we say,” said Mohan.
B P Bipeesh, leader of the DYFI, warned the principal that if the latter refuses to mend his ways, they would nit hesitate to burn him alive. The SFI is the most dreaded student wing in the State after the Islamic outfits like Popular Front of India, SIMI and SDPI.
The SFI is hand in glove with these organizations as the members of the banned Islamic outfits operate through the students wing of the CPI(M). In 2018, the SFI activists had staged a symbolic burial for Dr T N Sarasu, former principal of Government Victoria College, Palakkad, on the day of her retirement from service. They made a mock grave in front of the college and fixed a hoarding “Thanks for your great service”. Sarasu had been fielded as a BJP candidate from the Alathur constituency in the recent Lok Sabha election.“It really hurt me because this is what I got in return for my services to the student community. The complaint against me was that I tried to save the decency and dignity of the girl students in the college,” Sarasu had told this newspaper some time ago.SFI leaders who figure in mark list scams go around the State demanding that only persons acceptable to them should be appointed as principals. Many instances of students failing in degree examinations getting admitted to post graduate courses have come out in the open thanks to the good work being done by whistleblowers like R Sasikumar of the Save University Campaign.
R Bindu, minister for higher education, says that Kerala is the only State offering top quality higher education to the Students. But Saji Cherian, minister for culture says that students passing out of matriculation in Kerala are incapable of writing their names either in Malayalam or English. Both Bindu and Cherian are veteran CPI(M) leaders.
