The SFI flag.
Credit: X/@SFI_CEC
Thiruvananthapuram: From alleged malpractices in academics to brutal violence in campuses, the ruling CPI(M)'s students' outfit Students' Federation of India (SFI) seems to be literally turning out to be a 'burden' not just for the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), as said by CPI state secretary in Kerala Benoy Viswam, but for the state education sector.
Even as the wrongdoings of SFI activists are cited as a reason by many for the Communist party losing its mass base, SFI continues to be accused of indulging in such acts, the latest being the manhandling of a college principal at Koyilandy in Kozhikode.
Education activists say that the SFI was not just becoming a burden for the Left-front, but for Kerala's education system.
Brutal ragging and death of a student, J S Sidharth, at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Wayanad, SFI former activist K Vidhya allegedly forging experience certificate, torching the car of a teacher who declined a SFI activist's demand for higher internal marks, preparing a symbolic grave for a college principal, burning the chair of a college principal and beating up a KSU activists in a 'torture room' at the Kerala University's campus in Thiruvananthapuram were among the allegations that the SFI faced over the last few years.
Political patronage enjoyed by the SFI was very evident as the police often went soft against them. In a latest instance, the police were even reluctant to register a case against SFI activists for manhandling the principal of Gurudeva College of Advanced studies at Koyilandy in Kozhikode.
It was in such a scenario that CPI leader Benoy Viswam openly stated that SFI could become a 'burden' for the LDF if it went ahead with this style of functioning. Viswam, despite being the leader of the second largest party in the LDF, faced flak from CPI(M) leaders and was even threatened by a CPI(M) activist.
Save University Campaign Committee chairman R S Sasikumar said that the unruly acts of SFI in college campuses was one reason why many students prefer to pursue education in other places.
He said that though the priority of the students' outfits should be to ensure welfare of students, SFI's priority seemed to be the welfare of its leaders. The police are forced to go soft against SFI as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself has been strongly backing the SFI, he said.
"It's a generation that is being spoiled by such unruly acts in the state's education sector by the SFI," he said.