The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have trained their guns on the Students Federation of India (SFI) leaders, accusing them of systematically undermining the credibility of the State’s higher education sector for petty personal gain and at a steep cost to Kerala’s student and teaching community.
For one, they have cast SFI State secretary P.M. Arsho in the eye of an Ernakulam Maharajas College-centred examination “fraud” controversy.
Kerala Students Union (KSU) workers marched to the college accusing Mr. Arsho of wielding political influence to clear an MA Archaeology third-semester examination without scoring the minimum requisite marks.
‘Didn’t write exams’
Mr. Arsho stated that he could not appear for the examination following a police case-related court notice banning him from entering Ernakulam district. He saw a media-Opposition conspiracy to slander him and the SFI in the public eye.
The Congress and the BJP also sought to weaponise the accusation that another SFI leader, K. Vidya, an alumna of Maharajas College, had forged an experience certificate carrying the seal of her alma mater to wangle a guest lecturer’s post at Government College, Attappady. The police have indicted her for conspiracy, forgery and cheating.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the current controversies were just the tip of the iceberg. He alleged that SFI leaders recurrently exploited the Communist Party of India (Marxist) stranglehold on universities to bend the academic process at will. Mr. Satheesan listed past instances of “SFI leaders using impersonators” to appear for Public Service Commission examinations. He highlighted the seizure of the answer books of the University of Kerala from an SFI leader’s house. He said universities endorsed plagiarised, ill-researched and flawed doctoral theses submitted by SFI leaders.
‘Eroding credibility’
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran, MP, accused the SFI and their political enablers of being singularly responsible for eroding the credibility of the State’s higher education system. The SFI even altered the results of college union elections, supplanting victors with SFI functionaries, to control universities.
BJP State president K. Surendran said that the government had given rein to the SFI to lord over the higher education sector. Universities were hostage to the vested interests of SFI leaders, he alleged.
‘Media-Opposition plot’
The CPI(M) sprung to the defence of the SFI leadership. CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan saw a media-Opposition plot to discredit the student organisation and demanded an investigation. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member A. Vijayaraghavan said the media had made a mountain out of a molehill, leaning on a simple computer error, to discredit the SFI.
