SFI-KSU rivalry in city draws blood again

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The undemocratic doctrines of two major democratic students’ organisations continue to haunt the colleges in the capital city.The violent clashes between Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Kerala Students Union (KSU) that the city colleges have been witnessing in the recent past had its latest casualty in the form of an Automobile Engineering student named Arjun of Sree Chithira Thirunal College of Engineering, Pappanamcode the previous night. But this time, the clash of the rivals extended outside the campus when 19-year-old Arjun was attacked in front of his rented house at Nemom on Monday night. Arjun has been admitted to a city hospital after he suffered serious injuries on his arm and shoulder in the attack. He has also told the police that it was the members of the KSU who were behind the attack as he heard them utter that he would face dire consequences if he ever tried to oppose the functioning of KSU in the college, while hacking him using sharp weapons. However, he could not identify the assailants since they had worn masks. The Nemom police have registered a case in this regard. The police said that Arjun, hailing from Haripad in Alappuzha district, lived with eight other students of the college in a rented house at Deepa Nagar along the Police Quarters road in Nemom. The rest of the students were inside the house when Arjun was attacked. By the time they rushed out of the house, the assailants had escaped. According to sources in the Karamana police station, under whose jurisdiction the SCT College comes, there has been some tension prevailing in the college from June 15 onwards following the KSU setting up its unit there. However, the incident on Monday night did not ignite any untoward incident inside the campus on Tuesday. The police also said that even though the victim had alleged that political rivalry was the motive for the attack, the police are probing into other aspects of the case too, such as the conduct of the victim in the neighbourhood as he was the one who was specifically targeted by the assailants. Several city colleges have been witnessing violent clashes between the members of SFI and KSU in the last two months. The college authorities have attributed the clashes to the recent emergence of KSU on the campuses which were dominated by the SFI during the previous LDF regime. The City Police have registered cases after such clashes broke out on Kariavattom Campus of University of Kerala; College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram, Kulathoor and Sree Narayana College, Chempazhanthi.