A protest by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in Thiruvananthapuram over student suspensions and relaxed rules for autonomous colleges turned violent on Thursday after demonstrators pushed against barricades near the Kerala Secretariat, police said.
The march was led by SFI state secretary P S Sanjeev and moved towards the Secretariat gate near the office of Kerala Higher Education Minister Roji M John. Police said demonstrators climbed onto a water cannon vehicle and put up banners targeting the minister after repeated attempts to disperse the gathering.
According to officials, police used water cannons four times as around 100 SFI activists refused to retreat. Protesters later cut the ropes securing the barricades and attempted to move towards the Secretariat gate, officials said. Police personnel were deployed in front of the gate to prevent the demonstrators from entering the Secretariat premises.
After being stopped from entering the compound, Sanjeev and some activists climbed onto a water cannon vehicle. A banner targeting the minister was placed on the vehicle, while another was put up on the wall of the Secretariat compound. Sanjeev and other activists then addressed the protesters from atop the vehicle, police said.
Officials said police personnel deployed at different gates of the Secretariat were unable to contain all the protest marches, allowing some SFI activists to remove barricades at certain locations. The police said a case would be registered against the protesters for allegedly damaging barricades and climbing onto the water cannon vehicle.
The protest was organised over the suspension of students at Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit in Kalady and against a recent Higher Education Department decision concerning autonomous colleges. Sixteen SFI-affiliated students at the university were suspended in August following protests against the vice-chancellor and the syndicate. Ten students were subsequently denied permission to appear for examinations, according to the report.
The demonstrators also opposed the decision to remove the requirement for prior government approval when autonomous colleges introduce new self-financing courses or increase seats in existing programmes. Left parties have criticised the move, alleging that it could enable autonomous aided and self-financing colleges to expand student intake without prior government approval and increase the commercialisation of education.
The protest brought a higher-education policy dispute into the security-controlled space of the state administrative headquarters. The immediate police action centred on preventing entry into the Secretariat compound and responding to the alleged damage to barricades and the water cannon vehicle. The next formal step is the registration of the police case against the protesters.
