The SFI's Palakkad conference in 1981 flattered to deceive. The conference was held at a crucial period. It was the first time in a decade that a CPM-led government was in power in Kerala. E K Nayanar was the chief minister and V S Achuthanandan the party secretary.
The SFI had a major dilemma, and a fierce discussion ensued. To whom was the SFI beholden to? To the CPM or to the students? The overwhelming answer was that the SFI was responsible only to the students. Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac was then the SFI national president. “In fact, this was the spirit of the CPM's 1978 Salkya (Calcutta) Plenum. The Plenum resolution had specifically said that the SFI should be with the students. E M S Namboodirippad, too, had instructed the SFI to take such a stand,” said CMP leader C P John who was then the SFI's national vice-president.
The idealism that fired the SFI then had a premature death. The historic 1981 'charter of independence' was slowly dumped and students were made mere tools in the hands of politicians. The stabbing at University College in Thiruvananthapuram on July 13 just showed how rotten things had become.
Independence? No way
Former Naxalite and social critic K Venu said independent political thought was a near impossibility on campuses in Kerala. “The major political parties in the state have absolute control over the citizenry, right from the time they enter schools and colleges. They keep a close unwavering watch on its voters through feeder organisations like unions and student bodies. In a sense, we are trapped,” Venu said. “Any attempt at independence will be nipped in the bud. This applies even to educational institutions,” he added.
Veteran journalist B R P Bhaskar echoed Venu's sentiment. “There are men in the CPM's central and state committees who have been assigned the task of controlling the activities of the party's feeder organisations,” Bhaskar said. Any deviation from party line is discouraged.
Whenever the SFI leaders had tried to adhere to the 'charter of independence', they were edged out. Bhaskar said once when Pinarayi Vijayan was party secretary, the SFI unit in University College had behaved as if only students mattered. “They took up human rights issues for open discussion on the campus and had invited for talks activists the CPM was not comfortable with,” Bhaskar said. “But these bold SFI men were not chosen even for a panchayat member's post later,” he added. Bold independent action was shown its place.
University College's Vietnam war
Writer B Rajeevan, though a former Kerala Students' Federation (SFI's forerunner) leader, wants political parties to keep away from campus politics. “This concept of feeder organisations is anathema to the very idea of democracy. These feeder organisations work not for students but simply obey the whims of the parent party,” he said.
Rajeevan said there was a time, heeding the call of Mahatma Gandhi and other stalwarts, students had stood as one in the fight against colonialism. “Post independence, parties have divided students among themselves and have used them as foot soldiers in their amoral pursuit of power,” he said.
In the late sixties, when he was a student at University College, Rajeevan remembers how politically aware the students were. “The Vietnam war was on and it was the angry protests of the KSF that had then forced the American Embassy to shut down the American Cultural Centre right opposite the college,” Rajeevan said. “Now, it does not look like the students are aware of what is going on even in their neighbourhood,” he said.
KSU-SFI advantage
For campus politics to thrive, Rajeevan said the issues to be fought for had to be thrown up by the students themselves. “The fight should be theirs, for their own causes. The parties should keep away and desist from dictating things,” he said. Rajeevan's contemporary and friend at University College M M Hassan said it was not possible to sever the campus from general politics. "It is an organic bond. It was established at the time of the freedom struggle when students boycotted classes at the call of Congress leaders," Hassan said. "The problem is when senior political leaders meddle on campus affairs. Take for instance what happened in University College recently. It was CPM district secretary Anavur Nagappan who inaugurated Abhimanyu's death anniversary function in the college. In our time, senior politicians never concerned themselves with college programmes," said Hassan, senior Congressman and also former KSU leader.
Former KSU leader Cheriyan Philip, too, said the influence of political parties could not be wished away in a place like Kerala. It was even desirable, he seemed to suggest. “Wherever the SFI or the KSU had failed, fundamentalist groups have taken over. These student wings of major political parties are the best bet against growing right wing tendencies,” Cheriyan Philip said.
K Venu made an observation that seemed to back Cheriyan's logic. “An independent group of students has been the most dominant political formation in Kozhikode Medical College. They had even tried to replicate their success elsewhere. Later I was told that Islamic outfits were behind this independent group,” Venu said. Former students of the medical college confirmed Venu's information.
Success stories
CMP leader and former SFI stalwart C P John said it would be improper to ignore the historic triumphs of student politics. “For instance, the entrance examination was introduced in 1983 after the SFI unleashed an electrifying campaign against mark list forgery,” he said. It was the agitation of both the SFI and the KSU that had made public transportation affordable to poor students.
The 'One Ana Strike' (Orana Samaram) led by A K Antony in the late 50s for getting boat concession for poor school children had established KSU as a major force among students. Nonetheless, social critics like B Rajeevan blame the KSU for allowing political parties to snatch control of student outfits.
“During the Liberation Struggle against the EMS government, anti-Communist forces led by the Church had used the KSU for their own ends. It was for the first time that students went around destroying public property,” Rajeevan said. "But Rajeevan should not forget that it was EMS's wily education reforms that led to the Liberation Struggle," M M Hassan said.
C P John's Utopia
Still, C P John felt there was nothing wrong in political parties having student wings. “We just cannot keep party politics out of our social life,” he said. But John wants a more accommodative, almost utopian, kind of campus politics. He is not for snuffing out independent voices. “Let there be unattached independent groups and also student wings of political parties that think independently, and let all of them coexist democratically in an intellectually-stimulating environment,” he said.
John's idea of student politics is exemplified by the small office of labour unions at a small junction (Jagathy) in Thiruvananthapuram. “The office is shared by all the major trade unions, and all their boards are displayed in front of the office,” he said. “If only our student leaders had the common sense of our labourers,” he said.