UDF using political power to target SFI leaders in Kozhikode: CPI(M)

The Kozhikode district secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has called for protests against the United Democratic Front (UDF), which, it alleged, was using the police to target leaders and activists of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) by implicating them in fabricated cases.

In a release on Wednesday (October 21, 2206), the party leaders alleged that the UDF was frustrated over the SFI’s victory in 30 out of 48 colleges in the district in the recently held students’ union elections in colleges affiliated with the University of Calicut. M. Mehboob, CPI(M) district secretary, said that any police move undertaken at the behest of those in power to target political opponents would be resisted.

The CPI(M) leaders claimed that members of the Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF) and the Muslim Youth League (MYL), the students’ wing and youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League, respectively, had tried to assault SFI district secretary Amalraj and joint secretaries Farhan and Swarag, who had come to congratulate the victorious SFI candidates at the Government Arts and Science College in Kozhikode’s Meenchanda, on October 15. This attempt occurred without any provocation, they said. The CPI(M) leaders also alleged that the MSF and MYL activists disrupted the SFI’s victory celebrations as well.

Instead of taking action against the MSF and the MYL members who created the trouble, the police, allegedly bowing to the diktats of UDF leaders, had been targeting innocent students by framing them in false cases, they claimed.

The CPI(M) alleged that police officers themselves were undermining the rule of law even as UDF leaders were inciting members of the MSF and the MYL to subvert democracy on campuses by leveraging their political authority. Non-bailable sections 118(1) and 118(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita had been invoked against the SFI leaders, it added.

The CPI(M) district secretariat warned of protests if the police do not put an end to actions such as entering the homes of SFI activists and intimidating them.