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Curbing campus violence Law & order

The top brass of the police have called for a concerted effort of academicians, parents, teachers, managements, and students’ organisations to curb violence on the campus. “Maintaining discipline on the campus is the primary responsibility of the head of the institution. But principals cannot wholly manage students’ unrest,” says Kundan Singh Jangpangi, North Zone Additional Director General of Police.

A majority of the students have some sort of a political affiliation and all issues on campuses take a political colour. The interference of political party workers and cadres of fundamentalist organisations in college affairs also leads to more rivalry among the students’ unions.

Recently, several campuses in the district witnessed clashes between different groups of students in the aftermath of the college union elections. At least 20 persons were injured in clashes between the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Campus Front- National Development Front (NDF) at Government Madapally College in Vadakara on Tuesday. A lecturer, E. Rajendran, attached to the Department of Malayalam, who was caught in the crossfire, had to be admitted with serious head injuries at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital. Three police personnel, including Additional Sub Inspector K. Narayanan of Edacherry police station, were also injured in stone-throwing.

Clashes broke out between groups of students at three other colleges – Farook College, St. Joseph’s College-Devagiri, and Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College – in the limits of the city police on the same day.

The clash at Farook was between the workers of the United Democratic Students Federation, a combine of Kerala Students Union and Muslim Students Federation, and the SFI. At St. Joseph’s College the fight was between the SFI and the KSU while at Guruvayurappan College it was between the activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the SFI.

After the clashes the students’ groups hurled accusations against each other of fomenting trouble on the campus. The clashes had occurred during the victory celebrations of the college union elections.

The campus of Government Engineering College at West Hill saw groups of students coming to blows on Thursday. The college principal was detained in her chamber for over four hours.

The issue pertained to permitting a student belonging to the SFI contest the college union polls. It was amicably settled late in the evening after the University Dean intervened in the matter.

Mr. Jangpangi said that the police had a limited role in maintaining law and order on the campus. Any issue should be sorted out on the campus itself. Involving the representatives of students’ unions is very essential in containing violence in colleges. To make the campuses incident-free, the college authorities should also take stern steps to ban the entry of others inside hostels.

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