INSIDE KERALA ASSEMBLY

Campus violence: CM swears by 'rescue mission', Satheesan calls it 'licence to kill'

The alleged torture of KSU leader San Jose by SFI activists in what has been described as a "dark room" in the men's research wing of Kerala University's Kariyavattom campus, and the subsequent violence and police action during the night of July 2 and early hours of July 3, culminated in an intense verbal sparring by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Opposition Leader VD Satheesan in the Assembly on Thursday.

The issue came up in the House as an adjournment motion moved by Congress MLA M Vincent. It was Vincent's words that apparently provoked the Chief Minister. "It is your political patronage that is giving the SFI the energy to indulge in violence," Vincent said.

The Congress MLA listed a series of SFI's alleged violations, right from the attack on AISF's (CPI's student wing) woman leader and the humiliations inflicted on various college principals right up to the head of Gurudeva College, Koyilandy, to the death of veterinary student JS Siddharth, and pointed out that in all these cases the Chief Minister had justified the actions of the SFI. 

Then, referring to the violence let loose by SFI activists against 'black flag'-waving Youth Congress protesters during the Nava Kerala Yatra last year, Vincent said: "By calling their deeds a rescue mission, it was you who protected those who used helmets and flower pots and sticks to thrash the hands and legs and heads of opponents." And added: "This political patronage you gave got a stinging reply from the people in the form of the Lok Sabha verdict."

The mention of "rescue mission" did annoy the Chief Minister. "I just heard Vincent say that we lost because of my 'rescue mission' remark. Why did they (Youth Congress workers) jump in front of the bus on which we were travelling? Is it not an act of rescue to prevent a person from jumping in front of the bus? Why should there be any doubt? Just because the media made some noise will facts ever cease to be facts?" he said.

The CM wondered how preventing a person from getting knocked down by a bus can be called a crime. Curiously, the Chief Minister's argument was not that the brutality did not happen but that he did not see it. "Am I not obliged to say what I had witnessed? How can I speak about things that I had not seen? I did not see what happened at the place after we left. I said what I saw. I had said this then, had repeated it, have told this now, and will say this tomorrow also," he said.

The Opposition Leader pounced on this. "We had said in this House that it is the Chief Minister and his words that are giving political patronage to these criminals. We are once again underlining the fact that the Chief Minister's speech in the House today is the political patronage extended to the SFI to carry on with their violent ways in campuses," Satheesan said.

He then played back in his own words the Chief Minister's rhetorical assertion that he would forever stand by his 'rescue mission' remark and said: "We felt very happy hearing it. In fact, we were the ones who applauded when the CM said this. Because it was a firm declaration by the Chief Minister that you will not change, that you will not mend ways. This is a licence given to certain people to commit the most hideous crimes, to hunt down anyone, to beat anyone to death. It is the Chief Minister himself who has given the licence," Satheesan said. "This goonda gang that you are spawning in the incubator of your immoral politics will be your undoing," he said. 

Rather than speak about the campus violence that erupted at Kariyavattom, the Chief Minister used most of his speech time in the Assembly to show how the SFI had been victimised over the years by the Congress and media. 

The CM did not bother to answer even the two major questions raised by the Congress. One, why was the injured KSU leader San Jose taken to the Sreekaryam Police Station instead of the hospital? Two, why did 50-odd policemen stand as if incapacitated when SFI workers attempted to manhandle Congress legislator M Vincent before the police station? 

Chief Minister: Initially, they said the SFI  had destroyed Mahatma Gandhi's portrait in Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanad. But later it was revealed that the portrait was intact when the SFI activists left the scene. The only people remaining in the office were the Congress men. What prompted you to destroy Gandhi's portrait?
Opposition Leader: Are you saying that the  SFI workers stormed Rahul Gandhi's office to garland Mahatma Gandhi's portrait? You did it to make the RSS happy.

Chief Minister: It was recently that an arrest was made in the attack on AKG Centre. (A mild country bomb was hurled at AKG Centre on June 30, 2022, and Suhail Shahjahan, a person considered close to KPCC president K Sudhakaran, was arrested from Delhi airport on July 3). The person who has been nabbed is very close to the Congress. It has also been revealed that this person was in the aircraft the day there was an attempt to attack me inside the plane. (Two Youth Congress workers were pushed down by CPM leader E P Jayarajan inside an Indigo aircraft  on June 14, 2022, when they allegedly walked towards the Chief Minister's seat shouting slogans.)
Satheesan: The CM speaks of the AKG Centre attack. But these are people who had vandalised the statue of their own founder  P Krishnapillai. (Five CPM activists were arrested in this case.)

Chief Minister: There was also a campaign in which the SFI had forcefully marked 'SFI' on the back of a KSU student. (The 'chappa kuthu' incident). The person who is said to have been forcefully marked with the words later came out and said that it was done by himself as part of a conspiracy.  (In 2019, it was alleged that the SFI had picked up a KSU leader, forced him inside the University College, roughed him up, turned him on his belly and with the tip of a sharp knife the words 'SFI' was scratched on his bare back.)
Satheesan: This news (of the KSU leader's confession) was seen only in 'Deshbahimani'. Please have the courtesy not to repeat in the House what had appeared in 'Deshabhimani'.

At one point Satheesan told the CM that he had forgotten that he was in a democracy.  "You are an elected Chief Minister. But you behave like a 'maharaja',". To this, the Chief Minister responded with great indignation. "I'm not a 'maharaja'. I am the servant of the people. And I will do anything for them."

Repeated interruptions of the Opposition Leader's speech caused the UDF members to rush to the base of the Speaker's podium shouting slogans. When no entreaties worked, Speaker A N Shamseer was forced to rush through the proceedings and wind up the day before noon.