After the setback it suffered in the month-long students' agitation at Kerala law Academy law College in Thiruvananthapuram following its withdrawal from the stir halfway through, CPI(M)'s student outfit SFI has now come under severe attack for allegedly manhandling a youth and two girl students inside the University College campus in Thiruvananthapuram itself for sitting next to one another.
According to critics, this was not the first time the Marxist students' union had unleashed terror on innocent students and opponents in the University College campus but it has been successful in keeping the campus as its "Red Fort" for the past several years only by physically stifling opponents and using methods of intimidation.
The Cantonment Police in Thiruvananthapuram have booked 13 students, said to be SFI activists, of the college for assaulting TS Jijesh, a youth hailing from Thrissur, after he was seen sitting in the company of two girl students of the college inside the campus on Thursday during the staging of a play as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the college.
The case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Jijesh, an outsider to the college who was assaulted by the SFI activists in an alleged act of moral policing. He was invited to the college by two girls of the college, Suryagayathri, an SFI worker herself, and Asmitha Kabeer, both undergraduate students. They said they also were assaulted by the activists.
The SFI tried to defend itself by saying that the incident followed a complaint that Jijesh had misbehaved with a girl and that there was no use of force from its side. "That is a lie. I know the SFI very well as I am one of them. It has always been their habit to resort to this kind of propaganda of defamation against girls in such circumstances," said Suryagayathri.
According to the complainant, the attack on him was an act of moral policing by the SFI activists. He was forcefully expelled from the campus by the SFI activists and was later admitted to the General Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram with bruises. However, the police were yet to confirm the political affiliations of the alleged assailants.
"We are not the first victims of the SFI's arrogant behaviour at the University College. They have been doing this all the way. Whenever an act of atrocity of theirs against a girl triggered a controversy, they would resort to raising questions of morality against her. They are even keeping torture chambers inside the campus," one of the friends of Jijesh told the media.
leading the attack against the SFI over the moral policing issue is AISF, the students' outfit of CPI, CPI(M)'s ally in the ruling lDF. AISF's State secretary Subhesh Sudhakar alleged that the SFI's face had changed after the lDF came to power and that Thursday's attack was a misguided response to the setback it suffered in the law Academy stir.
As criticisms against the SFI over the issue of alleged moral policing at University College flooded the social media, State ABVP secretary Shyam Raj alleged that the Marxist students used to attack students who reached the college wearing Rakhis. He added that his organization would undertake a campaign against moral policing in campuses across the State.
"Outfits like the SFI are surviving by turning campuses into torture chambers. The SFI is in the habit of putting up a sign reading Red Fort at every institution where they command influence. They can mould ideological idiots only in such Red Forts into which winds and light of different ideas cannot enter," said young Congress legislator VT Balaram in a Facebook post.