The 29-day-long students’ agitation at the private Kerala law Academy law College at Thiruvananthapuram, which had become a big headache for the CPI(M)-led lDF Government, was called off on Wednesday after the management agreed to replace lekshmi Nair, accused of harassing and victimising students, as principal with a person possessing all the university-prescribed qualifications and to address the other grievances raised by the students.
The students announced the suspension of their strike after their representatives and those of the management signed the minutes of the meeting called by Education Minister C Raveendranath. The Education Minister also signed the document promising to intervene if the conditions were violated by the management in the future. Classes will resume at the law college on February 13.
The joint council of students’ unions AISF, KSU, ABVP, MSF and AIDSO and girl students without political affiliation also succeeded in getting the assurance that there would be no time-limit for lekshmi Nair’s expulsion. The management had earlier agreed to remove her as principal saying that she would not return even as a faculty member for five years.
The Government was forced to hold the meeting urgently after the students’ stir took a curious turn on Tuesday with two students threatening to commit suicide. A 68-year-old man had died after collapsing on the ground amidst the tension.
The management, which has already issued a notification inviting applications for the post of principal, said the interview of the applicants would take place on February 18. “She is not resigning. We told her to stay away and she agreed,” said law Academy director N Narayanan Nair, father of lekshmi Nair, after the talks. The students’ also held fast to their condition that verbal assurances would not do and that every point of the settlement should be incorporated in the minutes of the meeting.
After the students announced their decision to end the stir, Congress MlA K Muraleedharan and State BJP secretary VV Rajesh called off their indefinite protest fast in front of the law Academy.
The students wanted the management to produce documents concerning the removal of lekshmi Nair from the position of principal and to give assurance that she would not return to the position. They also wanted the Government to ensure legal action against lekshmi Nair over the charge that she had humiliated a Dalit student by addressing him by the name of his caste.
However, there was no assurance on their original and most important demand - resignation of lekshmi Nair as principal. They did not press this either. The students had refused to end the stir even after the SFI withdrew from it on January 31 after the management agreed to remove lekshmi Nair as principal. They had then said their stir would end only after she resigned.
“They have not achieved anything more than what the SFI had gained,” claimed M Vijin, State president of the SFI. But Arya V John, leader of the independent girl students who had started the stir, said “Our agitation has been a big success. A new principal is taking over and it means that lekshmi Nair has been removed without any time limit.”
Pooh-poohing the SFI for allegedly betraying the student community by holding talks with the management in isolation, leaders of the joint students’ council pointed out that the pro-CPI(M) outfit had earned only a worthless paper from the management but what they had got was a valid document from the Government itself with the signature of the Education Minister.