It was on June 12th, 1975 that the High Court at Allahabad ruled that the election of Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India was void as her election agent who was a government servant used government machinery for her election campaign. Even though Justice. V.R.Krishn Iyer, Supreme court judge, with an interim stay, allowed her to continue as PM without salary as an MP, she preferred to get a state of emergency declared by the President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and assumed all powers of the Parliament on her own. She went to put several opposition leaders in jail. The conditions in R E C Calicut in this period as stated earlier were very bad. Even before this, there were isolated cases of Naxalite attacks in different parts of Kerala. Being the only institution in Kerala where large number of students from the North East and West Bengal study, it was suspected that some Naxalites may be hiding in the REC hostels. Local police had made some enquiries but they could not find anything significant.
For the information of readers of the younger generation,
it is necessary to introduce the Naxalite movement. Naxalbari is a revenue block in
Siliguri district of West Bengal. Naxalite movement was an armed revolution
spearheaded by the tribal farmers of Naxalbari which was called Naxalite movement.
The Communist Party of India was slowly moving away from the armed
revolution line in the original Communism as the party started enjoying the
benefits of power starting with formation of governments in West Bengal,
certain party members got disillusioned and advocated a path of armed
rebellion. It was named a Marxist - Leninist party and its leaders were Charu
Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. Communist Party came to power in West Bengal in 1967
and this movement started in 1969 with an armed rebellion by the tribes in
Naxalbari. The CPI government in West Bengal thought this to be a simple law
and order problem and did not recognize the ideological support this group
received. They ignored it to be trivial and hoped it will vanish soon. However,
the movement got strength with more and
more followers and it spread to other states where Communist Party had some
support like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
In Kerala, the activities of the Naxalite movement were
confined to the Northern districts of Kannur and Wayanad. Naxal followers were
involved in some arson and murder in Pulpally(1968), Kuttiyadi(1969) and
Thirunelli (1970). Kunnikkal Narayanan, Mandakini, Philip M Prasad, T.V.Appu,
Varghese etc were the Naxal leaders. It
was quite natural that police thought some students or their friends from West
Bengal may be residing in REC hostels.
Orders came from the top to identify these trouble makers and hand them over to
the police. A few senior officers visited REC Hostels and found that the hostel
is almost an open book where any one, including outsiders could live for months
together without any one knowing about it. They insisted that more restrictions
should be imposed on the inmates of the hostel, otherwise, they will recommend
closure of the college indefinitely.
In reality, what the police officers stated was true. The
hostels were really an open book. A student can live in any hostel, can take
food from any hostel mess, can enter the hostel anytime night or day etc. If someone enters the door on the West side
of A hostel and moves through the corridors of A, B, and C hostels in that
order, they could reach Kattangal from D hostel gate or through E hostel
without anyone asking anything. Watchmen were too few in number and even those
who were posted never bothered to check whether outsiders are entering these
hostels. Many of watchmen posted were from the local villages knowing nothing
about security measures. A list of inmates was supposed to be available in the hostel office
but there was no way to check someone other than bona fide students is staying in some of the hostel rooms. The
officers were careful to note these and insisted that entry to each hostel
should be at a single point and a watchman is to be posted round the clock at
the entry point. They insisted that entry to the hostels should not be allowed
after 830PM and attendance (roll call) has to be taken every day at 9 PM and
all students should be in their own rooms afterwards. They wanted the hostel authorities
to ensure that no unauthorized persons other than regular students live in the
hostel rooms. The Calicut Mokkam main
road passing through the centre of the campus
has made any form of
security impossible.
During this period, Dr.P.S.Srinivasan, Professor EE
Department was the Chief Warden of the
hostels and he had selected many of the wardens from our own department
and I was one among them. I was assigned the E hostel. Prof. Srinivasan and our team had found out
that there were several students in the hostel taking food from the mess even
when they had arrear mess bill to pay of the order of several thousands of
rupees. We had put some restrictions that unless one clears the dues till the
end of the previous month, they will not be allowed to take food from any of
the messes. Entry to the mess was possible only with written permission from
the Chief Warden after clearing the dues. Many defaulters were obviously not
happy and were keeping their resentment in their mind even though they could
not find an excuse for not paying the dues for the food they have eaten.
The additional restrictions to be imposed as per orders
from the police are to be seen in this context.
The multiple entry points in all
hostels including the open grill on the first floor were closed with bricks and
cement mortar. Only the central gate was the entry point and a watchman were
posted round the clock at this point. Notices were circulated insisting that
all inmates should be in their rooms before 9 PM. Guests were not allowed to go
to the rooms of the hostel inmates, they could talk in the guest room provided
for the purpose. It was also informed
that roll call will be taken soon. Even though notice was circulated, we were
not sure about how the students will react to these restrictions hitherto
unheard of.
Anyway, we decided one day that we will try to take roll
call starting with the E hostel. We were expecting some protest but did not
know how it will be manifested. All the wardens and the chief warden together
reached the E hostel at 845 PM. As we were about to step into the hostel, power
went off in all the rooms and the corridors. Obviously, this was deliberately
done as the main switch was put off. As it was not safe to enter the hostel in
the darkness and no useful purpose could be served, we moved to the next
hostel. There again same thing happened. As we were moving to the next hostel,
a group of students numbering a few hundreds were following us at a distance.
As we were coming down from each hostel, the number of students swelled and by
the time we reached the last one A hostel, nearly 500 – 600 students were
behind us. By the time we started moving away from the A hostel abandoning the
mission, a few stones were thrown at us, one or two of us received it on our
shoulders. The students were virtually chasing us out of the hostel and seemed
to be interested only in frightening us, not in any way injuring us.
As soon as we came out of the hostel and reached the
quarters of the Chief Warden on the main road, we called the police and a truck
load of policemen came within about 30 minutes. Even before the police came,
the gathered students had dispersed and had gone back to their respective
rooms. No untoward incidents took place that night. Even though we had to drop the idea of taking
a roll call, the atmosphere in the hostels were far from being normal. It is under these circumstances that
the developments that led to the tragic death of our dear student Rajan took
place.
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