Click to play videoThiruvanthapuram: College campuses in Kerala are turning into battlefields. In October last year, MC Elias, an assistant sub-inspector of police, was battered to death inside the Government NSS college in Changanassery in central Kerala by a mob of students.
MC Elias might be the first man in uniform to lose his life in campus violence, but he was not the first victim.
A stone's throw away from the NSS college is 65-year old Sharada’s house. Sharda lost her eldest son Bimbi a decade ago. He was beaten to death by an angry mob of students at the college who mistook him for an RSS sympathiser.
“When we lost Bimbi, we lost everything in our life. He was our only hope. From the day he had left us, we have never lived peacefully, he was our biggest hope in life. Now we are just existing, not living,” she says.
Over 100 families in the state have a similar tale to narrate. So who is to blame? With 95 per cent of the state's college unions ruled by the CPI-M’s student wing SFI, they are looked at as the primary culprits.
But student leaders are unwilling to own up.
“Campus violence is increasing but its not because of student organisations. It's because of outsiders and goonda gangs who come into the campus,” says State President, SFI, Sindhu Joy.
As for the political class, keeping campus politics alive ensures steady recruitment into their parties.
For the CPI-M, keeping the red flag flying in perhaps one of its last bastions in the country is a necessity.
Says writer and academician, Prof M Leelavathy, “If the political leaders don’t instigate students, they will never take up violence.”
The state government, however, has another take on the issue. “This is a social process. Political activity of society would reflect in campuses and similarly those who prove their qualities in campuses would graduate to senior political activities,” says Kerala’s Minister for Education, M A Baby.
As long as there is a political need, looks like campuses in the state will continue to erupt.
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