SFI March against the UDF government's education policy - Police lobbed teargas shells, used water cannon and lathicharged the protestors

POSTED BY VAKKOMSEN

Several students and policemen were injured after a protest march taken out by CPM's students’ wing, SFI, against the UDF government's education policy turned violent today.

Police lobbed teargas shells, used water cannon and lathicharged the protestors after they attacked them when they tried to prevent them from moving towards the state assembly complex, police said.

The protesters also vented their anger at a few government vehicles. The melee, which lasted for over an hour, halted traffic in the heart of the city.

Police accused the marchers of having triggered the violence while SFI leaders alleged that the violence was unleashed on protesters as part of a pre-planned strategy to suppress the agitation.

The injured were rushed to hospitals. Pro-Left student outfits in the state have been on protest mode for the last several days accusing the UDF government of having failed to rein in the managements of self-financing colleges which had declined to follow the policy of filling half the seats in their institutions from the state quota.

Adding credence to the allegation that the new Kerala government is playing to the tune of the Christian churches, it has surrendered 50 per cent seats which belong to the government quota in the four medical colleges run by various Christian churches.
The government has literally signed on the dotted lines on the conditions dictated by Inter Church Council for admitting students for the MBBS course at these medical colleges. Under the agreement reached between the government and the council, these medical colleges can now admit students of their choice in all seats and need not leave 50 per cent seats for the students who top in the entrance test conducted by the government which is the existing practice.
Surprisingly, the government did not clarify whether this is applicable to other 12 private medical colleges under non-Christian managements.
The crisis in the self-financing medical education sector has caused conflict of communities in the Congress-led ruling UDF of Kerala. Non-Christian and non-Muslim sections in the UDF have started complaining that front leader Congress is succumbing to pressures from the minorities leading to aggravation of the crisis in the sector.

The communities’ conflict in the coalition has worsened with the Inter-Church Education Council and the Muslim Educational Society (MES) toughening their respective stands over the issue of allotting seats in their colleges to students from the merit quota of the Government at lower fees.

Non-minority sections in the UDF say that the Government’s decision to allow the Cabinet sub-committee, in which the pro-Christian Kerala Congress (M) has prominence, to talk with the Inter-Church Council over the proposal for allotting 50 percent of MBBS seats on merit basis. The council, however, had refused to admit even a single student from the Government list.

It is now said that the Government had given prominence to the Kerala Congress (M) in the Cabinet sub-committee because of its reluctance to antagonize the Church. UDF partners other than the Kerala Congress (M) and the Muslim League say that this was the prime reason for the worsening of the issue to the present level.

Despite the efforts of the Government, the Inter-Church Council has so far stuck to its stand of not allotting even a single MBBS or BDS seat to students from the merit list. It has already issued prospectus for admitting students in all seats in the colleges under it from the management side at high fees. The council had filled all its seats from the management side last yearalso.

However, this has irritated the colleges under the Medical College Managements Association, which had allotted 50 percent of the seats on merit basis in its colleges last year as per a pact with the Government. The association, which includes the MES, now says that fulfilling social justice obligation is not their exclusive duty and that they would withdraw from the pact.

Fazal Gafoor, president of the MES, has openly stated that there cannot be one set of norms for Christians and another for other communities including Muslims, generating a feeling that the Government is allowing the Church to behave as it likes. He has warned that the MES also would fill all seats in its medical colleges with students from the management side.

The non-minority sections in the UDF have begun questioning the Congress’s rationale behind the policy of appeasing the minorities. “If the Congress has been sincere, it would not have included members from the pro-Christian Kerala Congress in the Cabinet sub-committee,” said a top leader of the Socialist Janata (Democratic), a UDFconstituent.

“How can the committee with known pro-Church members in it take a firm position against the Inter-Church Council at the talks with it? If the leadership of the committee had been given to non-minority members, it could at least have some credibility. This has now become a war within the Government,”he said.

A day after Kerala Congress (M) leader and Finance Minister KM Mani, who led the sub-committee in the talks, announced that the Inter-Church Council would continue to fill all seats in its medical colleges with students chosen by the managements Health Minister Adoor Prakash came out against this, giving out a feeling that the panel was divided over the matter.

There are six Christians in the 20-member UDF Cabinet while the number of Muslim Ministers is five. Also, crucial portfolios like Education, Finance, Industries, IT, Water Resources and Food are being handled by Ministers from minorities.

Shocked by this, the representatives of non-Christian managements wonder how a democratic government can proposes a set of norms for Christian colleges and another set of norms for non-Christian colleges. “By doing so, the government has betrayed the people in the state. We have so far given 50 per cent seats to the people. But now we have to think about it. We cannot accept separate norms,” said the MES (Muslim Education Society) chairman.

Mr Shaffi Parambil, MLA and president of Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) ~ the students’ wing of the Congress in the state ~ alleged that Inter Church Council is functioning like a parallel government. “I hope the chief minister will intervene and correct it,” he said.
“If the Inter Church Council is deciding things here, then it is better to hand over the ruling of the state to the organisation,’’ said Mr P Biju, SFI state president, lashing out at the state government for its biased stand.

Annoyed by the decision, former minister and Congress leader Mr Pandalam Sudhakaran said that though the health ministry, headed by the Congress, had to decide on the issue, it seemed that the Kerala Congress had undermined it. “Students have been denied social justice by the decision. It is very unfortunate and highly objectionable.’’
Minister Mr Mani is the leader of Kerala Congress, which is patronised by various churches, especially the Catholic ones. Chief minister Mr Chandy belongs to the Orthodox sect and is also very close to his church