SFI march to Raj Bhavan against Kerala Governor’s ‘bid to saffronise State-run varsities’ turns violent

A Students’ Federation of India (SFI) march to Raj Bhavan against Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar’s alleged bid to “saffronise” State-funded universities turned violent in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday (July 10, 2025).

Scores of SFI activists marched behind a lengthy cloth banner slamming Raj Bhavan-appointed temporary Vice Chancellor of Kerala University, Mohanan Kunnumal, as a “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) stooge”.

The police, deployed in strength, cordoned off the road leading to Raj Bhavan with iron barricades to prevent the student activists from trespassing on Mr. Arlekar’s official residence.

The marchers toppled the barriers and climbed on top, sloganeering against Mr. Arlekar and Mr. Kunnumal. The police discharged water cannons several times to disperse the protesters, who refused to budge from the spot. 

Subsequently, the police sounded bugles and waved the mandatory red ensign, declaring the march an unlawful assembly and urging the protesters to disband. 

However, the warning had little effect on the agitators, forcing the police to display another red banner warning the activists that they would fire tear gas shells.

As required by law, the police sounded the bugle three times and senior officials on the spot conferred with the protest leaders to pre-empt a police action, which seemed imminent.

‘Existential struggle’

The SFI declared that breaking into the Raj Bhavan precincts was not the objective of the march. The leaders stated that the activists would disperse on their own accord after the march. 

SFI national president Adarsh M. Saji inaugurated the protest. He cast the SFI’s agitation against the Governor as “an existential struggle to preserve the constitutionally sanctioned autonomy, democracy and secularism of State-funded varsities.”

Mr. Saji said that two successive Governors in Kerala had repeatedly sought to “undermine” the State’s storied higher education sector by meddling in university administration and appointing “incompetent RSS underlings” as temporary vice-chancellors and Syndicate members. 

Mr. Saji said Mr. Arlekar’s predecessor had laid the ground for the “RSS takeover of State universities” by refusing to sign the University Amendment Bill passed by the Legislative Assembly into law and referring it to the President when the Supreme Court damned the gubernatorial delay. (The Bill seeks to remove the Governor as chancellor of State-funded universities and appoint leading academics chosen by the Government to the top post.)

Opposition Leader slammed

SFI State president M. Sivaprasad railed against Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan for terming the organisation’s struggle against the RSS takeover of secular and autonomous State varsities as “hooliganism and lawlessness”. 

Holding aloft a large photograph allegedly showing Mr. Satheesan lighting a lamp in front of pictures representing RSS’ depiction of Bharat Mata and its ideological guide M.S. Golwalkar, Mr. Sivaparasad stated that the Leader of the Opposition was “echoing the words” of former Governor Arif Mohammed Khan by criticising SFI students from working-class families fighting for secularism as “goondas.”

“The Opposition Leader should change his name from V.D. Satheesan to V.D. Savarkar,” Mr. Sivaprasad said. He accused Mr. Satheesan of reining in KSU from joining the struggle. 

Mr. Satheesan told reporters in Kochi that the “victims” of the Governor-government political tug of war were hapless students and families caught in the vortex of the academic and administrative dysfunction swamping universities.

Traffic disruption

The SFI protest turned the arterial Vellayambalam-Kowdiar road into a strife zone for the better part of the day. Anticipating violence, the police had diverted traffic well in advance of the march, forcing motorists and pedestrians to take long detours to reach their destinations.

SFI activists booked

Meanwhile, the Cantonment police booked nearly 200 SFI activists, including the leaders, on the charge of unlawful assembly, rioting, disturbing public peace and destruction of public property. So far, they have not arrested anyone.