The Kerala Assembly on Thursday witnessed heated exchanges between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan over an attack on a KSU leader by SFI members at the Kariavattom University campus.
Satheesan warned the chief minister that “the phalanx of goons being reared in incubators will finally take you along”. He said the chief minister was patronising all the violent activities of the SFI, the student wing of the CPI-M through his words.
The Assembly was to be adjourned for the day amid protests by the Opposition UDF members against Speaker AN Shamseer’s decision to deny leave for an adjournment motion to debate an incident where a leader of KSU, the student wing of Congress, was attacked by SFI workers at Kariavattom University campus the other day.
Moving the adjournment motion, Congress legislator M Vincent accused SFI activists of assaulting him and fellow Congress legislator Chandy Oommen, and also accused police officers of standing idly by during the incident outside the Sreekaryam police station.
The adjournment motion put the LDF Government on the defensive. It provided the Opposition UDF members an opportunity to renew allegations of ‘torture rooms’ linked to SFI, echoing charges raised a few months ago following the death of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) student Sidharthan JS, who purportedly killed himself after being subjected to ragging.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in his reply to the motion, defended the SFI and the police saying the police precisely acted to control the volatile situation without showing any political partiality.
The chief minister recounted past instances of aggression towards SFI members by KSU. He also referred to the incident in which Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait was destructed at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s office in Wayanad, purportedly by KSU workers, and the attack on AKG Centre allegedly by Youth Congress activists.
“The clashes in campuses are condemnable. Those responsible should face action. But facts should not be distorted by putting all blame on a particular outfit,” he said.
VD Satheesan, in his speech after denial of permission for the adjournment motion, said people like Chief Minister Vijayan, his party leaders and the government were giving all the support and motivation to the SFI by defending their criminal acts.
Directly pointing finger at the chief minister, he warned him that “the phalanx of goons being reared in incubators will finally take you along.”
Satheesan listed a number of incidents, including the alleged attack on Youth Congress protesters by SFI activists during the Navakerala Sadas, to which the Chief Minister maintained that he viewed the act as a “rescue act” and would continue to do so in the future.
“A youth was brutally attacked in a dark room by the SFI members and he was taken to the police station instead of being admitted to a hospital. The KSU workers held a dharna before the station urging cops to hospitalize the injured. “Why did the SFI members assemble outside the station? When the injured was taken to the Medical College hospital, other students accompanying him were attacked by the SFI again. The phalanx of goons being reared in incubators will take you along,” Satheesan said.
The Opposition leader said the CM, during his Nava Kerala yatra, had felt that he was a ‘Maharaja’, “You are no Maharaja, you are only the chief minister, Satheesan said, “To this CM Vijayan replied, “I am not a Maharaja, I am only a servant of the people.”
He said a person who worked in CPI-M’s college teachers union for 29 years switched over to BJP due to SFI’s violence. She was the BJP candidate in Alathur in the Lok Sabha polls.
Satheesan also mentioned the attack on a college principal of a self-financing college in Koyilandy. The SFI area secretary has threatened the principal of further attack, he added.
The Opposition members trooped to the well of the House after Satheesan’s speech was interrupted several times by LDF members. They raised slogans against the Chief Minister and the government As the uproar continued unabated, the speaker completed the business of the day and adjourned the House.