The Communist Party of India (CPI) has expressed concern over the academic fraud scandals centred around Students’ Federation of India (SFI) leaders.
In a damning editorial on Wednesday, CPI’s party newspaper Janayugam said the accusations against the SFI leaders, amplified by the right-wing media and parroted by the Opposition, had eclipsed the hard-won achievements of the State’s higher education sector.
The SFI, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the government had found themselves on the back foot after evidence emerged that a few student leaders had resorted to academic artifice to gain employment or admission to higher courses.
The CPI was concerned that the suspected chicanery, including submission of forged degree and teaching experience certificates, had lent ammunition to the Opposition to assail the government. At least two centres of higher learning were under university scrutiny for “facilitating” the fraud. Its criticism also came against the background of the accusation that a CPI(M) leader and Kerala University Senate member used his political heft to gain admission for an SFI leader to a postgraduate course on the merit of a dubious academic certificate.
Denying political space
The editorial also criticised the SFI for using strong-arm tactics on campuses to deny political space to other student organisations, including Left student bodies. The newspaper said malefactors often used student organisations as a political cover for their illegal activities.
Criminalisation
The CPI State executive council met here on Wednesday and reportedly deliberated criminalisation of student politics. It also mooted a sweeping inquiry into academic fraud that threatened the State’s higher education sector’s credibility.
CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran told reporters that Left students organisations in Kerala had a storied history and legacy to guard. Left parties should ensure student organisations operated within social responsibility and civic behaviour bounds, he said.
