T.P. Sreenivasan being manhandled by a mob of SFI activists
When I became a victim of the barbarity of SFI leaders in front of The Leela in Kovalam, my mind travelled to 1994, when I was the high commissioner in Kenya. Only a month had passed since I took charge.
Leaders of the opposition there had met me and asked for the financial support of Indian businessmen.
They had also warned me that if their demand was not met, the Indian community in Kenya would not be safe.
Though I conveyed this to businessmen at a meeting with them, they did not care. At 1 am on November 5, we woke up in a state of shock on hearing a commotion. Attackers, who had dug a tunnel from the compound adjacent to our home, came to our room and attacked us.
My wife and children were with me. They were not attacked. But they broke my left arm, and my hip was bruised.
The attack on the high commissioner was a way found by the leaders there to make Indians realise that they were not safe if the demands of the opposition were not accepted.
What happened on Friday in my own state was something similar: The vice-chairman of the higher education council, who organised the international conference, was attacked to prove that the policy was not right.
Everyone must think what was gained by that.
They had announced a few days ago that they would oppose this conference at any cost. They had ganged up there by evening on the previous day. It was expected that they would try to disrupt the conference.
When I reached the entrance of the hotel in the morning, police blocked me, and they asked me to walk. When I started walking, protestors blocked me.
Though I said that the conference will start only if I am there, they did not allow me to go.
When I started going back, I heard someone shouting that it was the vice-chairman. Soon, the blow came.
I had got out of the crowd and was near the police when a man came from behind and hit me hard from the right side. It felt like I was hit by a stone, and in that impact I fell down.
Luckily I was not injured. Still I was shocked. I went to a friend’s house nearby, took rest for some time and had a cup of tea. Only then did I become normal.
I understood the gravity of the incident when I viewed it on TV channels. Soon the chief minister and the home minister called. They assured that measures would be taken to start the conference after removing the protestors.
Since the chief minister and the education minister were not there, there was no inauguration. Still the conference was started on time. Let me make it very clear to the protestors: this conference was done neither as part of a new policy nor to sell the education sector.
The conference was held to discuss the areas where we could cooperate with foreign universities within the ambit of existing laws. It is the government’s policy. What is the point of beating the vice-chairman to block it?
The conference is a venue for preliminary discussions on establishing special education zones in the model of special industrial zones and an academic city.
Many delegates have arrived from India and abroad, and they have the opportunity to express their opinion at the conference. I do not understand the logic of giving the reply on the street instead of at the conference.
The basic criterion of allowing an academic city is international cooperation. The conference intends to discuss its draft policies. No change is envisaged in existing laws.
The government will take a decision even on draft policies only after discussions at different levels. In all those places there will be venues to express opinion, and the government is willing to listen.
I was attacked either without understanding this or feigning ignorance. It should be suspected that what was executed in Kovalam was pre-planned.
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