Students during the protest at University College. (@ANI/Twitter)Massive student protests broke out in Thiruvanathapuram’s University College over the a student being stabbed, allegedly by members of the Students’ Federation of India, which is the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), reports The New Indian Express.
The incident occurred over a small altercation involving a final year student, Akhil, who was confronted by SFI members for loudly singing on campus premises. After the dispute escalated and he was stabbed, students gathered en masse and demonstrated against what they claimed was the iron grip of SFI over the college.
The office of the college union, which is under the control of SFI, was also broken into and ransacked by some of the protesting students.
“Is this democracy? Is this socialism? Leftist ideals have always attracted us. But what we see here is total fascism. Those who question the SFI leaders here are intimidated, verbally abused or beaten up,” said a female student who participated in the demonstration.
SFI has reacted to the situation by disbanding its unit in the college and assuring the protesting students that it will hold its own inquiry into what happened.
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