{"id":256055,"date":"2015-10-16T14:54:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T09:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=256055"},"modified":"2015-10-16T14:54:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T09:24:22","slug":"shock-waves-from-dadri-reach-kerala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/shock-waves-from-dadri-reach-kerala\/","title":{"rendered":"Shock Waves from Dadri reach Kerala"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beef-Fest-Kerala\"
\nThe news of the horror of the Dadri lynching has travelled far and wide and stirred up many debates in the media across the country. Such was not the case when the NDA-led government criminalised everything to do with beef across north Indian states. This criminalisation is being called by many, as the root cause of the murder of 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq by a communally charged mob in Bisada village in Dadri. How does one protest when a government criminalises the staple diet of a people?
\nHow does one protest when a mob kills a family, suspect of eating the food of their choice? Far away from Dadri, college students in Kerala have protested against Akhlaq\u2019s murder by holding beef festivals in college campuses. The state of Kerala has no regulation on cow-slaughter and the consumption of beef; so ideally, there should have been no problem in conducting the festivals. However, in the last week, there has been a series of attacks from right-wing groups upon students involved in conducting the festivals.
\nOn 1 October, the Student\u2019s federation of India (SFI) unit of the Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, a government aided institute, conducted a beef festival on campus. On the day of the festival, students of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) entered the venue and openly opposed the festival. This led to a clash between the two political parties from the campus. Several students were injured in the violence and had to be admitted to different hospitals in Thrissur. The situation got more out of hand when someone set the college union office on fire the next day. The SFI\u00a0has blamed the ABVP\u00a0for the incident.
\nThe college authorities too, have opposed the festival. Soon after the incident, six students, all SFI\u00a0members, were suspended from the college based on the findings of the college disciplinary committee. According to the management, the students were suspended for violating college rules. On being asked about the incident, the first thing that CM\u00a0Latha, Principal of the Kerala Varma College, tells Tehelka is that non-vegetarian food is not allowed inside college premises. She cites the presence of an Ayyappa temple in the campus for the ban on non-veg food.
\n\u201cCollege authorities are not against the students\u2019 right to protest,\u201d says Latha. \u201cHowever, since the time when the Kochi Maharaja handed the college to the Cochin Devaswom Board in 1947, the latter has been particular that vegetarianism be maintained in the college. Therefore, the management is particular about not allowing non-vegetarian food inside the campus.\u201d A senior college student is amused after hearing her principal\u2019s words. According to her, \u201cStudents have always brought non-vegetarian food inside the campus. We have had beef and other non-veg items in many programmes earlier.\u201d
\nAccording to KS Rosselraj, SFI\u00a0district secretary, Thrissur, these new excuses that the college authorities have come up with are clear indicators that they are afraid of the BJP\u00a0and the RSS. \u201cThe Ayyapa temple explanation is also just an excuse. Up till three years ago, it was only a small space where students would light a lamp during the annual pilgrim season.\u201d He adds that the SFI will continue to conduct more such festivals in order to fight against the fascist attitude of the ABVP\u00a0and the RSS\u00a0inside the campus.
\nTEACHER TARGETED<\/strong>
\nIt is not only the students who have been targeted for their cultural campaign by the college authorities. Faculty member Deepa Nisanth, a Malayalam lecturer, has had to face the heat for a post she made on Facebook regarding the issue. Rossel alleges that the college management was forced to target the lecturer by the ABVP\u00a0and the RSS. In her post, Nisanth, a writer and social media activist, had expressed solidarity with the protesting students. Her post reads as follows: \u201cI strongly disagree with the opinion that educational institutions should be like temples. I saw many demanding that action should be taken against teachers supporting the beef fest. I wish my name would be right on top of the list of people to be ousted. I support strikes that are necessary for the times.\u201d
\n
\nNisanth has also garnered support from various quarters after being targeted by the college management. \u201cI am very happy that people have responded and supported me. A small opinion of mine has given way to a big debate,\u201d she says. It is perhaps because of this that the college management has decided not to initiate any action against her.
\nThe incidents following the beef festival at the Kerala Varma College have sparked protests across the state. In a show of solidarity, the SFI\u00a0conducted beef festivals in many other colleges in Kerala. Most of these festivals also turned violent with parties like the ABVP opposing them. The beef festival organised at the CMS\u00a0College in Kottayam was marked with incidents of violence with students clashing with each other. The festival organised at the SN College in Vatakara, Kozhikode, also saw students getting involved in fights.
\nThe situation became more noticeable when it was reported by mainstream media. More tension followed when noted TV anchor and BJP supporter, Rahul Easwar\u2019s stand on the issue was openly criticised by a group of students. Students shouted slogans against him when he visited the MSM College in Alappuzha to take part in a seminar. They demanded that Easwar should extend his support for beef festivals in the state.
\n\u201cThis is extremism,\u201d says Easwar. \u201cThey blocked the gate and shouted slogans against me. Can I not live without supporting a beef festival in a secular country? If someone wants to conduct a festival, let them. Why should I be forced to support it?\u201d
\nWRITERS PROTEST<\/strong>
\nThe Dadri incident has brought the deeply intolerant values propogated by politicians and right-wing parties to the fore. Though \u2018vigilante\u2019 mob violence in the name of protecting the cow is not uncommon in certain belts of north India, the horror of the Dadri lynching has shocked our society forcing many to wake up and make sense of the issue. Besides student protests, many writers and cultural icons from across the country have come out to protest against the incident. Writers from Kerala have also joined the protests with veteran writer Sara Joseph declaring that she would return her Sahitya Akademi award to oppose the \u2018growing communalism\u2019 in our society under the current government. Former Akademi secretary and poet K Satchidanandan and noted Malayalam writers such as PK Parakkadavu and KS Ravikumar have also announced their resignation from the Akademi\u2019s general council.
\n\u201cThere has been a gross attack on plurality and secularism in the country,\u201d says Sara Joseph, summing up the situation in the country that led writers like her to return their awards and resign from their posts. \u201cWe have been denied all kinds of freedoms in contemporary India, the freedom to write, freedom of speech and freedom to love \u2014 all have been snatched. Now, citizens do not even have the freedom to eat the food of their choice.\u201d
\nadarsh@tehelka.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beef festivals in a state that has no objection to beefeating become a problem for the ABVP, the RSS and the college authorities just because they are protests against the lynching of a man in Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":256074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[3161,6358,6506,6507,453,6508,6509,466,6510,895,6511,1681,6512,6513,6514],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}