The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has found itself at the centre of a political storm in the aftermath of the suspected death by suicide of J.S. Sidharth, a second-year student at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) at Pookode in Wayanad district of Kerala.
Sidharth’s death, allegedly due to ragging and assault by SFI activists, has rendered the left student organisation vulnerable to Opposition criticism that it routinely used wanton violence, social shaming, public trials, smear campaigns, inquisitorial methods and intimidation to sustain its “stranglehold” on college campuses.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan appeared to weigh strongly in favour of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) strident condemnation of the SFI’s “cult of violence”.
