The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Police accused of double standards

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Friday, Jun 20, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Police accused of double standards

Special Correspondent

In handling agitations by student bodies

Thiruvananthapuram: The United Democratic Front (UDF) on Friday condemned police discrimination in handling agitations of Opposition students and youth organisations.

In a joint statement here, the UDF leaders said that the police did not hesitate to use violent methods to put down democratic agitations against Opposition students and youth organisations framing them in false cases, even while becoming mere spectators when ruling party students and youth organisations indulged in violence and forcibly secured the release of accused from police stations.

The LDF government, the statement said, had deviated from its attitude towards democratic protests by resorting to a policy of brutally putting down agitations led by Opposition parties and their youth and student organisations.

Listing out a series of such incidents that took place throughout the State in the last few days, including the assault on Congress MLA T.N. Prathapan, the statement said the UDF was no more prepared to tolerate the government’s “Stalinist” policy.

It also condemned the derisive attitudes of certain LDF leaders towards Opposition agitations. The Chief Minister had failed to check the behaviour of Cooperation Minister G Sudhakaran who had been insulting religious heads, caste leaders and political leaders.

The current experiments in the general education and higher education sector, particularly the self-financing professional sector, had a political aim. The statement warned the government that it would have to face strong public agitations if it failed to retract from its current policies.

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