Student Struggle

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STUDENT STRUGGLEVol. 40 Issue No. 2

February 2011English Monthly

Editor

V. Sivadasan

Asst. Editor

Roshan Kishore

Editorial............................................................................2

New Winds in the Arab WorldPrabir Purkayastha........................................................3

SFI-DYFI Salute Arab People-From a Solidarity Meeting in MumbaiAwanish Kumar.................................................................7

Reiteration of the UPA’s Pro-Rich and Anti-People Policies 8

Equity and Excellence in Higher Education......................................9

The Left Alternative in Education : The New Kerala ModelM A Baby........................................................................13

Universities Play Footsie with Company Labeled ‘Baby Killer’ Amit Sen Gupta...............................................................19

Successful vidhana soudha chalo......................................22

Solidarity with massive working class struggle..............................25

23 February Workers’ Rally: From the Eyes of a StudentP.K. Anand....................................................................27

Students’ Federation of India 40 Years of Study, Struggle & Sacrifice....30

Four Decades of Study Struggle & Sacrifice Calls for Strengtheningthe Battle of IdeasRitabrata Banerjee.........................................................33

Celebration of Four decades of study, struggle and sacrificeHulli Umesh...................................................................38

40 Years Celebrations of SFIK. Chandra Mohan...........................................................39

Tamilnadu SFI Conference Calls for Militant StrugglesS P Rajendran................................................................41

Student Struggle February 20112

EDITORIAL

A massive wave of anti-authoritarian uprisings,unprecedented in the modern Arab history, has

taken the world and especially the North African andArab regions by storm. The flare up in Tunisia, havebeen followed by widespread protests of varyingdegrees and scale , in Egypt, Yemen, Morocco,Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan and Bahrain.The undemocratic regimes which had set up theirautarchies, stifling democratic voices for decades,came under the artillery fire of popular protests,venting out their anger and frustration. The protestswere marked by the presence of a wide spectrum ofthe population, coming from all strata of the society.The immediate reasons which prompted the protestswere unemployment, inflation with rising food pricesand rampant corruption. The protests had their beginning in Tunisia afterthe self immolation of an unemployed youth harassedby the police. The news was reported by Al Jazeera,though ignored by the national media. Despite the bestattempts of an over confident President Zine El AbidineBen Ali to curb the protests by censorship and otherdraconian measures, the people actively assisted bythe working class organisations like the TunisianGeneral Labour Association, were able to sustain theirprotests which spread soon over other parts of thecountry. As the struggle intensified and got closer tothe centres of power, students, teachers andunemployed took their part in large numbers. The finalshowdown came after the declaration of a generalstrike by the trade unions and the President flew thecountry in stealth. Thus the three decade long autarchyof the favourite strong man of West in Tunisia hadcome to an end. The events in Tunisia were an indication of whatwas in the offing for the rest of the Arab world. Egypterupted into protests with massive populardemonstrations where people joined in millions. TheTahrir square witnessed millions of pro-democracyprotesters occupying it and the authoritarian rulerHosni Mubarak had to surrender to the public angerand step down from power but only before trying toretain his seat of power through an iron fist. The AlJazeera which reported the news of the pro-democracy protests was banned and Mubarak got thetacit support of the USA who wanted his henchman

to continue on his chair. Thousands of armedhooligans were employed to recapture the space atTahrir square, but the determination of the people todo away with despotism was insurmountable andMubarak had to go as army took over theadministration. Libya was the next in line to have its streetsflooded with anti authoritarian protesters. ColonelQuaddafi, who came up as a champion ofnationalization and socialist policies in his initial years,has turned into an ally of the US in its ‘war on terror’.Over the years Quaddafi has cemented himself onthe throne by developing a militia loyal to him whilekeeping the armed forces rather weak. The Libyanuprisings have acquired the nature of a civil war andthere have been attempts by the imperialists to playout their strategies. It is the duty of the world toassist the Libyan people in their struggle fordemocracy and any attempt by the imperialists toadvance their hegemony should be vigilantly resisted. It is the fervent hope of the progressivesections that these revolts will help in advancing theagenda of democratization of the Arab societies andto recover the ‘Arab past which once subscribed tothe values of French discourse of the Rights of Manand the Marxist vision of a classless society’. It is yet hard to predict the developments inthe region. Whether take over by the army wouldsubsequently lead to democracy or militarydespotism is a million dollar question. Theprogressive and democratic sections worldwide arewaiting with crossed fingers about the future of theserevolts. There is a tangible danger of military orimperialist take over which can be avoided onlythrough heightened vigil by the democratic forces. But whatever be the outcome, these struggleshave once again proved the urge of the people ofWest Asia and Northern Africa to have accountableand democratic regimes. It has broken the stereotypesproduced in the so called global media about suchregions. It is the duty of the Indian student communityto recognise the historic nature of these revolts andstand by the struggling people and to ensure thesupport of the people of India for the advancementof their historic fight.


Tunisia and Egypt has shownclearly that the Arab world is

entering a completely differentphase of politics. The old world ofauthoritarian rulers – fromdictators of various stripes tomedieval monarchies – all of themare now threatened. A Gaddafi inLibya or a Khalifa in Bahrain mayhold out for some time more, butthe clock for this order of WestAsian and North African leadersis rapidly running out. This of coursedoes not mean the immediatetransformation of these states. Theleaders may change, the regime isgoing to be much more difficult todislodge. Some immediate battlesmay have been won, but a victoryin the war to change these societiesstill remains.

How do we look at thechanges taking place? There islittle doubt that the pace at whichthese changes have taken placehave confounded everybody.When the fist demonstrationsagainst Ben Ali took place, expertssmiled and proclaimed that nothingwas going to change in Tunisia.Ben Ali was a wily fox and wouldmanage the street revolts easily.Once he was deposed after twoweeks of street protests, theknowledgeable exclaimed thatEgypt was different. The securitystate built by Mubarak was toopowerful, the Egyptian state wasfar more sophisticated, the westernpowers and Israel would not likeMubarak, their firm ally to go andtherefore Mubarak would not

follow Ben Ali into exile. It is truehe has not gone into exile; he isnow holed up in the resort town ofSharam el Shaikh. The resthowever has followed the Tunisiascript.

Mubarak’s did not really leavehis Presidency willingly – he hadto be virtually dragged out kickingand screaming. There is little doubtthat with mass strikes in most ofEgypt and the pressure of peopleon the streets again building up, theArmy finally told Mubarak enoughis enough and he had to go.

The West, particularly the USwas really not happy about this turnof events. However, saving theregime was important to them,Mubarak expendable. Faced withmass protests on a scale that has

New Winds in the Arab World

Prabir Purkayastha


not been seen for the last 40 yearsin the Arab world, retaining at leastthe core institution of the regime –the Military – guided the USactions. The key for them is howto manage the transition nowwithout giving up the geo-strategicdominance that the US has in theMiddle East. If Egyptian revolutionlinks itself to Arab nationalism andgives a call for an independentforeign and economic policy, theUS interests would be deeplythreatened. As would also be thesecurity of Israel, which hasbanked on Egypt being a tacit allyof Israel.

The movement fordemocracy has spread to Yemen,Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain and nowLibya. While Libya is very muchin the news, Bahrain is far morevaluable in security terms to the US– it houses US’s Fifth Fleet and thelynch-pin of their CentralCommand.

Whether these nascentrevolutions will be able to create anew order that will bring somemeasure of democracy and equityinto their societies is an openquestion. Obviously, while some ofthe dictators have left, the regimethat they built still remains. Egyptwill be the key player here as it hasalways been the centre of the Arabworld – both culturally andintellectually.

What are the forces that aresweeping the region and what dothey represent? This is the questionof all of us have to ask, with noclear answers at the moment. It ispossible for the old order to re-establish itself with some cosmeticchanges. It is possible also that farreaching changes will follow.

Above all, the stagnation of politicsin the Arab world, in which peopleand their views did not matter, hasnow broken. The normal politicalprocesses – of parties, trade unions,student and women’sorganisations, protests and debates– can renew after a long hiatus. Inthis sense, Arab world has comeback to Nasser’s times when theold order changed brining in newpolitical players. It is a renewal ofArab nationalism albeit in a verydifferent form.

The course of Arabnationalism had run out of steamby the end of 60’s. What remainedin place were either monarchs —strongly backed by the imperialpowers — or nationalist strongmen, with close military links. Bythe end of the 80’s and fall of theSoviet Union, almost all the Arabstates became — to a more or lessdegree — vassals of the soleimperial power, the US.

The central weakness of theNasserite legacy is that while it didrid their countries of the thenprevailing corrupt and quasi colonialorder, it looked upon the militarisedstate as the primary instrument ofbuilding a modern nation. Thepeople were there to applaud andto participate, but only passively.The Nasserite movements thatcame to power had legitimacy andsupport of the people as it didtransform these countries fromcolonies to independent nations.However, if the leaders betrayedthe Nasserite legacy, as did AnwarSadat, there was very little that thepeople could do.

In many ways, the earlierTunisian and the later Egyptianuprising is a continuation of the

nationalist movements that hadcharacterised the earlier de-colonisation struggles. That timetoo, the countries were eitherformally colonies or effectivelycolonies. Today also, the Arabpeople see their rulers assurrogates of the West. HosniMubarak and Ben Ali representrulers who were propped byWashington to its bidding and donot represent their people. Almostunanimously, the Egyptianprotesters reiterated that they wereonce again proud of beingEgyptians. The resonance to anEgyptian nationalism, which hadlaid dormant for so many years,was resurfacing again.

For many, Libya came as asurprise. Gaddafi still retains someaura of an anti-imperialist and anArab socialist. What is not realisedis that Gaddafi switched from aArab socialist to a neo-liberalagenda much earlier. Post 9-11 andIraq’s invasion, he has not onlyaligned with the US he has alsobeen a devout votary of Waragainst terror. It is this exhaustionof the earlier anti-imperialist legacycoupled with blatant accumulationof wealth by his family and croniesthat turned the people against him.Being an autocrat and a completelymercurial one at that does not helpmatters, particularly if the only rightpeople had in his “direct”democracy was to listen to him.

The fact that the West hatesGaddafi is beside the point. He hasbeen its bugbear for long decadesand even if he has made up to themnow, memories linger. Any changein Libya can be dressed up as theWest helping democracy in theArab world. This may also help in


distracting attention from their longhistory of shoring up medievalautocracies and dictatorial regimesin the Arab world.

Egypt of course occupies apivotal role in the Arab world. It isby far the biggest country in theMiddle East with 85 million people.It is also the strongest militarypower in the region after Israel.Israel has not forgotten that theEgyptian Army recovered after thedisastrous 1967 War and was ableto inflict heavy losses initially in the1973 War. Israel’s sense ofinvincibility was shaken whenEgyptians crossed what Israelthought was an impregnable BarYev line along the Suez Canal. Thiswas what prompted Israel and theUS to try and reach an agreementwith Egypt, handing back Sinai andeffectively taking Egypt out of theequation. It is this equationestablished in Camp David byIsrael, Egypt and the US in 1978,which is now threatened by theEgyptian revolt.

Who are the actors in thisrevolt? If you listen to the westernmedia, it is a leaderless revolt withMuslim Brotherhood waiting in thewings to take over the movement.The spectre of Khomieni and Iranis raised time again as a possiblefuture for Egypt and therefore —as Tony Blair put it — “how tomanage the transition” — a changeof face but not a change of regime.This is what the mass of Egyptianpeople are rejecting — they wantmeaningful change of regime andthey want it now.

The movement for changeinclude new actors who started thewhole movement, a set of olderpolitical parties including the

Muslim Brotherhood and ElBareidi, the former chief ofInternational Atomic EnergyAgency.

Who were the actors whostarted the protests? The twomajor youth groups were the“Kolona Khaled Saeed” (We areall Khaled Saeed) and the 6th AprilYouth Movement. Each of themhad built a large following usingFacebook and Twitter. In addition,the 6th April Youth Movement werealso closely connected to tradeunion activists, particularly in thestate run textile factories inMahalla, located just to the northof Cairo. The core activists met anumber of times to work out theentire plan – how the protestswould be organised, how the groupswould be formed and how only afew would know the actual routesand destinations. This is how theDay of Rage – 25th January —was organised and sustained inTahrir square and other parts ofEgypt over the next 18 days. Oncethe program of protests wasannounced, cutting Internet andmobile networks did not matter.Everybody knew the essentialdetails — dates, routes and wherethey had to protest.

It is true that the older politicalformations including MuslimBrotherhood were also very mucha part of the movement. But thescale of the action makes clear thatit is neither lead nor created bythem — it is mass action supportedby all sections of society in Egypt.

The key issue that West raisedin Egypt is the future role of theMuslim Brotherhood. What theyforget is that the world sees theiropposition to Islamic

fundamentalism as completelyhypocritical. It is welcome as longas it is Saudi Arabia and a host ofEmirs and kings supporting theWest. Then women’s rights,democracy and all other issuesdisappear. It is only when westerninterests are threatened thatIslamic forces become unaccep-table. It is also not forgotten in theworld that the ex-colonial powersand the US are quite happy to alignwith Islamic fundamentalism in the50’s, 60’s and 70’s in the Arabworld — not only against the leftbut also against the Arabnationalists. Not only Cold Wardynamics but also the decolonisingprocess was the reason why theUS sided with Islamicfundamentalists against secular andnationalist forces. Oil and the SuezCanal are what drove US policy inthe Arab world then and what drivesit now.

The issue of Palestine andIsrael is also of course behind thereactions in the West. Egypt wasa managed state and a willingpartner in the barricading of Gaza.After Mubarak, it will be verydifficult for any new Governmentnot to listen to peoples voice onPalestine. And any body who hasvisited Egypt knows peoples’sentiments run very deep on theissue of Palestine.

It is important to understandthe nature of the SecurityApparatus that Mubarak had builtup and why protests were sodifficult in Egypt. Egypt has one ofthe highest police to populationratios in the world – 1.2 millionpolice. In addition, it has a 350,000strong Central Security Force,whose primary task is to break up


strikes and protests. However,after battling the protesters for oneweek, this force simply collapsed,paving the way for eventualdeparture of Mubarak.

The role of the military hasbeen crucial in both Tunisia andEgypt. From the beginning, they didnot fire of the protesters, keepingthemselves out of the conflictbetween protesters and theGovernment. There are manyreasons for this – the respect themilitary forces enjoyed, the beliefthat they were the only institutionof the state that could providecontinuity if the other institutionscollapsed, their own unhappinessat being frozen out of the major loottaking place under Ben Ali andMubarak. However, while the“neutrality” of the armed forceswas critical for the success of theTunisian and Egyptian uprising,they also contain the long term ofthreat of only exchanging one setof autocrats with another.

In Libya, the situation did notplay out similarly as the militaryeffectively split, with one sectionsupporting the forces fightingGaddafi and the other supportinghim. Libya has two populationcentres – one on the eastern sidearound Bengazi and the otheraround Tripoli with a large desertin between. Both have oil fieldsnear them and therefore caneconomically sustain themselves.The eastern part – the Bengaziarea – has always been the centreof dissent against Gaddafi. InBengazi this time, major sectionsof the people and the localGovernmental apparatus havegone over to those oppose Gaddafiincluding some important regime

figures. Out of the 4 major tribesthat constitute Libya, Gaddafiseems to have lost support of 3.While he may yet survive basedon some sections of the militarybeing loyal to him, his rule in Libyais effectively over – at best he canonly inflict a civil war on Libya.

In Bahrain, Yemen and inJordan, the protests against theregimes are continuing though notwith the intensity we saw in Tunisiaand Egypt. The key issue in allthese revolts is the role of thearmed forces. If they can beneutralised as they were in Tunisiaand Egypt, the old regimes wouldhave to change. If the armedforces continue to support theirestablishments, it will see muchmore protracted and bloodystruggles.

In Bahrain, the US and SaudiArabia has a much bigger stake. Itnot only is the headquarters of theUS Fifth fleet, it can immediatelytilt the regional balance in favourof Iran. A part of the battle fordemocracy in Bahrain is giving themajority population who are Shiassome share in power. The Sunnisdominate over all Governmentalinstitutions in Bahrain. SaudiArabia’s fear is that this willimmediately increase Iran’sinfluence in the region and alsolead to Shias in Saudi and otherGulf states becoming moreassertive. This may be the firstbreach in the monarchies in thisregion, over whom Saudi’s havemanaged to dominate.

If we look at the overallpicture, Libya not withstanding, theWest and its surrogate – the Saudishave suffered serious reverses.They have lost Egypt and Tunisia.

In Lebanon, the pro-western SaadHariri Government has beenreplaced by a Government in whichHezbollah is playing a moreimportant role. All in all, theregional balance has swung awayfrom them. Israel is now far moreisolated than it was a few monthsback.

It is important to recognisethat Tunisia was the start of a newprocess in Middle East and theArab world. It is not going to stopwith Egypt, but Egypt is the keyplayer in this region. With changesin Egypt, it will irrevocably changethe Middle East equation. ForIsrael, the US and the West, this isnot happy tidings. For the rest ofthe world, there is joy and solidarity.Yes, the course of Egypt’srevolution is not clear. But anychange from the current regimecan only be for the better. This iswhat people in Egypt are asserting:an Egypt in which peoples’ voicedoes matter. And this is what isresonating in the Arab world


The Student Federation of India(SFI) and Democratic Youth

Federation of India (DYFI)Mumbai Committees organized asolidarity meeting in support ofdemocratic uprisings across theNorth African and West Asianregion. The event was held on 2nd

March 2011 in Dadar, Mumbai.Many students from collegesacross Mumbai, progressivecitizens associated with SFI-DYFIand other groups attended themeeting. The meeting began withComrade Preethy Sekhar (DYFI)putting the context for the meeting.She said that the meeting is a stepto understand the significance ofArab struggles for democracy anddemonstrating solidarity with thetoiling masses, students and youthof those countries who are at theforefront against tyrannies. Shesaid that the major source of newsabout events in the Arab world isthe imperialist media which isfeeding many distorted motives tothese democratic movements, forinstance, by highlighting Shia-Sunnidifferences etc. In this scenario, itis important for all left-democraticforces in India to try and unravelthe real historical and geo-politicalsignificance of the turn of eventsin Arab. Comrade Akash Bagul

(DYFI) underlined the fact that theregimes across Arab worldadopted pro-imperialist politicalstance and neoliberal economicpolicies which deprived people andfavoured only a few. He assertedthat India also has a similar regimewhich is trying to suppressdemocratic forces in the country.Comrade Mahendra Singh(Secretary, CPI(M), Mumbai)began by pointing out that themovement for democracy inTunisia was started by a modeststreet-vendor which, in itself, isinspiring. Later, however, in suchmovements many kind of politicalforces participate- the alignmentsof which are not at once clear forall. He also provided a largerhistorical context to the happeningsin Egypt with reference to ColonelNasser’s role in Non-AlignedMovement (NAM), Suezcontroversy, Israel-Arab war in1967 and the long Palestinianstruggles. He said that by the 1980s,unfortunately, the anti-imperialismof earlier Arab nationalist regimeswas compromised. He concludedthat while the unrest on Arabstreets is not a pure working classstruggle, it is definitely a stepforward against the murderousdictatorial regimes. Not

surprisingly, even the Army inmany countries refused to shoot atthe expanse of democraticmovements. He emphasizedthe need for the progressiveforces across the world to showsolidarity with people’s movementsin Arab.

Comrade Prabir Purkayastha(Delhi Science Forum), who wasthe main speaker at the meeting,spoke in both Hindi and English. Hebegan by highlighting his longassociation with Arab region,particularly Palestinian struggleagainst Israel-US. In the currentcontext, he said, the most importantthing to note in the series ofstruggles in Arab is the fact oflarge participation of the youth whoare fighting, struggling and layingdown their lives for democracy.This is an inspiring feature of themass-democratic movements inArab. He further pointed out thatthe Indian media is almostcompletely dependent oninternational sources with theexception of The Hindu which isthe only media group to have acorrespondent in West Asia.Hence, the information about theworld in the country is filteredthrough the western lens.

SFI-DYFI Salute Arab People-From a Solidarity Meeting in Mumbai

Awanish Kumar


The Union Budget for 2011-12has once again failed to meet

the aspirations of the studentcommunity in the country. The totalspending on education as perbudget estimates 2011-12 are only5% of the budget as opposed tothe demand of 10% by thestudent movement in thecountry. The apathy of thegovernment towards the educationsector is clear from the fact that forcertain crucial sectors the revisedestimates for the year 2010-11 arelower than the budget estimates.

This means that thegovernment did not even spendthe amount which was allocatedin the last budget. The RevisedEstimates for 2010-11 for TotalTechnical Education (Rs 5793.90crores) and Total Provision forproject/schemes for the benefit ofNorth Eastern Areas and Sikkim( Rs 979 crores) are less than the2010-11 budget estimates whichwere Rs 6011.55 crores and Rs1078 crores respectively.

The provision of Rs 21000crores in the Sarv ShikshaAbhiyan is also not enough formeeting the Right to Educationrequirements. The PlanningCommission had estimated thisfigure to be around Rs 34600crores per year. Another importantfact to be noted is that bulk of thismoney has come from the PrathmikShiksha Kosh, which is financed bythe Education Cess. Once the DirectTax Code in brought into effect thecess would be rolled out.

There has also been a cut

Reiteration of the UPA’s Pro-Rich andAnti-People Policies

back in the allocation for RajivGandhi National Fellowship forstudents from deprivedbackgrounds. While thegovernment did not spend thetotal amount allocated last year(Revised Estimates for 2010-11 Rs144 crores compared to BudgetEstimate of Rs 159 crores), therehas been a further cut back thisyear with an allocation of only Rs123 crores. This would lead to amore than proportionate fall in thenumber of recipients given the factthat the scholarship amount has beenincreased.

The general thrust of this year’sbudget reflects the government’sinsensitivity towards the plight of thecommon people in the country.There has been no attempt toprovide any relief from price rise tothe people. In fact, the financeminister has announced a cutbackof Rs 20000 crores in subsidies overfuel, fertilizer and food. The moveto switch to a direct cash transfersubsidy regime to BPL families inKerosene, LPG, Fertilizers and mostprobably Food is a sure shot recipefor excluding millions of peoplefrom the subsidy net and further addto their miseries.

There is also a drastic fallin the revised estimates for 2010-11in social welfare expenditure. Thetotal welfare expenditure forhandicapped people andexpenditure for social welfareshow Revised Estimates for onlyRs 326 crores and Rs 91.35 croresagainst budget estimates of Rs398 and 201.6 crores. There has

also been a cut back in theallocation for Multi SectoralDevelopment Programme forminorities in selected minorityconcentration districts from Rs1245 crores (2010-11 BudgetEstimates) to Rs 1077.60 crores.This shows the callous nature of thegovernment towards seriouslyimplementing the recommendationsof the Sachar and Rangnath MishraReports for upliftment of minorities,particularly Muslims.

The budget also seeks to pushthe country on the neo-liberal pathby calling for liberalisation of thefinancial sector, especially in bankingand insurance. It is clear that neo-liberal dogma has prevailed over thelessons which should have beenlearnt from the global economiccrisis.

There are no noteworthymeasures to crack down on theblack money which has beenstashed inside and outside thecountry. Neither is there any moveto increase resource mobilisation aswell. Switch to the Direct Tax Codeis sure to bring down tax receipts,in the context of an already fallingtax-GDP ratio. The tax exemptionsto corporate houses have increasedto a whopping Rs 88263 crore thisyear.

Overall, the budget is areiteration of the UPA’s pro-rich andanti-people policies which are boundto take our country on a destructiveneo-liberal trajectory. The SFIappeals to the students to opposesuch measures and mobilise opinionagainst this anti-people regime.

UNION BUDGET


The ruling Left DemocraticFront (LDF) Government in

Kerala is completing five years inoffice within a few months. Theperformance of the Government isbeing evaluated at different levelsin the context of the impedingelections. The programmesimplemented by the Government inthe education sector have come infor special scrutiny. This is not atall surprising. First, the tradition ofentrusting the portfolio of educationwith junior coalition partners hadbeen broken this time. CPI (M), theleading partner in the Governmenthad itself taken over theresponsibility, signalling theimportance attached by the LDFGovernment to education. Theclose scrutiny is intended to find outwhether the expectations of thepeople have been redeemed.Secondly, the LDF Governmenthad attempted to implement analternate development agenda ineducation, contrary to the agendaof Liberalization, Privatization andGlobalization (LPG) beingimplemented by the CentralGovernment for the past twodecades. The success/failures inthe conceptualization andimplementation of the alternateagenda are also being criticallyassessed.

An important aspect thatneeds to be taken into account

while assessing the performance ofthe LDF Government in educationover the last five years is thepolitical and ideological polarizationprevailing in the State. It is truethat people by and large support thepolicies and programmes of theLeft in education. At the sametime, there is also a strong lobbywhich is opposed to the basic tenetsof the Left. The vested intereststhat they represent enjoy strongsupport from political andcommunal organizations opposed tothe LDF. The approach of thejudiciary has also not always beenhelpful. In fact, the criticismagainst the LDF policies ineducation was initiated by theHon’ble High Court of Kerala.What prompted the criticism wasthe enactment of a comprehensive

law for enforcing social control onunaided professional educationalinstitutions within one month of theGovernment assuming office.While striking down severalprovisions of the Act, the Hon’blejudges were sarcastic about whatthey perceived as undue haste onthe part of the Government toimplement the promises given to thepeople. Despite obstructionistinterventions from the vestedinterests and the judiciary, theGovernment could still ensure amodicum of social justice in theself-financing sector. A majorityof the self-financing institutionswhich were started under theprevious UDF regime with noregulatory control could be broughtunder an arrangement for seatsharing with the Government and

PROGRESS REPORT OF LDF GOVERNMENT IN KERALA

EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE INHIGHER EDUCATION

V.S. Achuthanandan Chief Minister, Kerala


socially sensitive fees structure.The total commitment of theGovernment to social justice andits determination to ensure it helpedit to overcome successivechallenges in the self-financingsector.

The achievements of theLDF Government in Kerala in theself-financing sector acquire moresheen if pitted against theretrograde steps being taken by theCentral Government in this sectorduring the last five years. TheCommon Minimum Programme(CMP) of UPA-I had promisedthat nobody would be deniedaccess to higher professionaleducation for want of financialresources. But the promise has notbeen redeemed so far. The draftBill prepared by MHRD in 2004and the drat Regulations preparedby UGC in 2007 which containedseveral provisions for ensuringsocial justice have now been setaside. In their place, Kapil Sibalhas introduced the bill on‘Prevention of Unfair Practices inTechnical and Medical Educational

Institutions’ which is intended tolegalize corporatisation andcommercialization of Technical andMedical Education. There is noprovision in the bill for a CommonEntrance Test (CET) or a SingleWindow System (SWS) ofadmission. There is no provisionfor implementing constitutionallymandated reservation. There isalso no legal sanction for aninclusive fees structure. The billonly seeks to ensure transparencyin the business of education. Withthe enactment of the bill in theParliament, even the existingadmission and fees regulatorycommittees in the State will haveto be disbanded.

The LDF Governmentcould recognize thecomplementarities between equityand excellence in higher education.The reforms implemented duringthe last five years reflect thisunderstanding. One of theimportant reforms was torejuvenate the non-professionalGovernment and aided sector inhigher education. Steps were

taken to encourage the study ofbasic disciplines by instituting aHigher Education ScholarshipScheme. 1000 scholarships wouldbe distributed annually under thisscheme for the study of basicdisciplines. Starting with firstdegree education the scholarshipwould be available for a period offive years. The amount ofScholarship would progressivelyincrease from Rs.12000 toRs.60000/- from the first year tothe fifth year. In addition to this,4000 SuvarnaJayanthi scholarshipsworth Rs.10000 would be givenannually to the students from lowerincome families. There are also5000 special scholarships forMuslim girls. The StateGovernment also rigorouslyimplemented Central SectorScholarships for the Minorities.There are also several short termscholarships for helping meritoriousstudents to undertake short termresearch in national level institutionsunder the guidance of renownedteachers.

Another step taken tomake the study of basic disciplinesattractive was to restructure theundergraduate programme byintroducing Choice-based-Course-Credit-Semester System(CBCCSS) and Grading. Kerala isperhaps the only State which hasfaithfully implemented the UGCvision on restructuringundergraduate education. It waspossible to implement this complexreform without any hassles due tometiculous planning andimplementation under theleadership of the State HigherEducation Council. Theimplementation of the CBCCSS


has opened up the opportunities forquality education for all, which is aremarkable departure from theprevailing practice of setting upexclusive islands of excellence.The object of the reform is todemocratize quality in highereducation.

Kerala is the first state inthe entire country to seriously takeup the recommendations for settingup Clusters of Colleges. AllEducation Commissions in freeIndia, starting with KothariCommission, have commended thesystem of clusters of colleges, witha view to extending excellencefrom the centre to the periphery bypooling intellectual and physicalresources available amongneighboring colleges. The schemehas now been implemented on anexperimental basis inThiruvananthapuram, Kochi andKozhikode. Unfortunately asection of the educationalentrepreneurs in the State haverefused to join the scheme. Whatthey want is not academicautonomy but managerialautonomy. They do not subscribeto the philosophy of collaborationand want competitivecommercialization of education.The Government has taken a greatstep forward in concretizing itsalternate agenda in education byestablishing clusters of colleges. Itis necessary to expand and enlargethe scope of this experiment.

The Scholar-in-ResidenceProgramme (ERUDITE) is a novelscheme implemented by theGovernment for collaborating withinternationally renowneduniversities and their faculty. Thescheme provides for extended visits

by well known scholars to theuniversities in the State. A numberof scholars including eight NobelLaureates have taken part in theprogramme so far. Apart from itsinspirational value, the visits of suchscholars have also led to sustainedacademic collaboration betweenthe universities in the State andreputed foreign universities. Thescheme is qualitatively differentfrom that promoted by the CentralGovernment which has piloted the‘Foreign Universities Bill’ tofacilitate the setting up of offcampus centres of foreignuniversities in the country. The

Central initiative facilitatesacademic re-colonization of India.Kerala’s experiment wouldpromote academic regenerationthrough collaborative engagementson a global scale.

Even as Kerala wasimplementing its own uniqueprogrammes in higher education itwas also trying to make the bestuse of enhanced central assistancefor higher education. A number ofnew institutions including IndianInstitute of Space Science andTechnology (IIST), Indian Instituteof Science Education andResearch (IISER), a CentralUniversity and a Centre of AligarhMuslim University have been setup in the State during the last fiveyears with central assistance. Inaddition to these, new colleges andcourses were started inGovernment, Aided and Unaidedsectors. The 12 year ban onappointment of teachers was liftedby the Government. More than2500 teachers were appointed incolleges and universities during thelast five years. Of this 1700 wereappointed to new posts createdduring the period.

The efforts of theGovernment to improve the qualityof education in the technicaleducation sector have borne fruits.Smart classes with internetconnectivity have been set up in allGovernment Engineering Colleges.Regular training programmes areinstituted for teachers. A Centrefor Research in Engineering hasbeen started. For contentdevelopment, schemes such as K-base, The Scholar, andGurusmarana etc are beingimplemented. Quality improvement

M.A. Baby Education Minister, Kerala

Kerala was implementing itsown unique programmes in

higher education it was alsotrying to make the best use ofenhanced central assistance

for higher education.Kerala is the first state in the

entire country to seriouslytake up the recommendations

for setting up Clusters ofColleges.


programme was implemented inPolytechnics. Seventeen FinishingSchools were also set up toimprove the employability of thePolytechnic pass outs.

What is given above is nota comprehensive picture of thereforms undertaken in highereducation during the last five years.It is only a sample of the reforms.The most important fallout of thesereforms is that a workable,alternate policy frame work hasbeen evolved in higher education.The roadmap for a better futurehas been laid. It is necessary toensure the continuance of thereforms without any break. Thethird International Congress onKerala Studies held from 1st

January to 3rd January has drawnup a comprehensive scheme forequitable development of the Statethrough the next decade. Theimportant proposals on highereducation that emerged through theconference organized by CPI (M)are the following:l Take steps to preserve and

strengthen the federalstructure of the Indian Unionand to resist the onslaught ofLPG reforms through politicalcampaigns and administrativemeasures.

l Take steps to impart qualityeducation to more people.The gross enrollment ratio inhigher education the Stateshould be increased fromaround 18% at present to 30%over the next ten years byexpanding the opportunities forface-to-face and distanceeducation.

l Public investment in highereducation should be increased.

The number of Governmentinstitutions should be increasedstep by step with a view togiving them the pride of placein the higher education sector.

l Unaided institutions may bepermitted, subject to socialcontrol. Preference may begiven to the co-operativesector and Governmentcontrolled autonomousinstitutions for starting unaidedinstitutions.

l The Central Scheme forPublic-Private-Partnership(PPP) which is intended toprivatize public assets shouldnot be implemented. On thecontrary, a new mode of PPPthat would make availableprivate resources for publicpurposes should be devised andimplemented.

l The entire higher educationsystem should be decentralizedand democratized.Autonomous clusters ofcolleges which could promotediversification and innovation inhigher education should be setup by creating appropriatestructures for collaborationamong neighboring colleges.

l Steps should be taken toensure that all educationalinstitutions would have at leastmandatory minimum physicaland academic infrastructure

l Promote academiccollaboration between Indianinstitutions and reputed foreigninstitutions.

l Give priority to research inhigher education. Establishlinkages between highereducational institutions and theproductive and social sectors

to ensure that the knowledgecreated in academicinstitutions is applicable andmade available for thedevelopment of the country.

l Take steps to ensure periodicaltraining of teachers

l Establish an Open Universityin the State

l Take legal and administrativesteps into ensure social controland quality in self-financingsector.

l Take steps to review the legalstructure of variousuniversities to ensuredecentralization, academicinnovation and autonomousfunctioning of universities andcolleges.

l Implement Single WindowSystem (SWS) of admissionand collection of fee throughuniversities

l Ensure the protection of thedemocratic and organizationalrights of teachers and students

l Take special steps forameliorating the difficulties ofphysically challenged personsfor pursuing higher educationEducation is the key to

development in a knowledgesociety. It is necessary to ensurethe continuance of the policiesinitiated by the LDF Governmentfor consolidating the gains madeand making it more inclusive byexpanding its base. In the contextof the coming elections, it is notenough to assess the reformsalready implemented. Theimpending reforms are asimportant as the reforms alreadyimplemented. These should alsobe considered while makingelectoral choices.


WHEN the Left DemocraticFront (LDF) government

came to office in Kerala in 2006,education was in doldrums. Morethan 2000 government and aidedschools were on the verge ofclosure. Standards had deterioratedso much in these schools that therewas an exodus of children frompublic funded institutions to privateschools which were successful increating a false impression ofquality through window dressingand clever advertising. The plight

of higher education was nodifferent. Government and aidedcolleges which had only outdatedcurriculum and courses to offerwere becoming redundant. Youngboys and girls were flocking to self-financing professional colleges,most of which had only poorinfrastructure and charged heftyfees. Rajani S Anand, the haplessgirl who committed suicide byjumping off the multi-storiedbuilding which housed the office ofthe Commissioner of Entrance

Examinations epitomised the senseof gloom and despondency thatwas characteristic of Kerala’seducational scenario in 2006. Whileeducation was becomingincreasingly inaccessible, therewas all-round deterioration inquality right from the primary to thepost graduate levels. Kerala’sachievements in education werein danger of being eroded, bothin quantitative and qualitativeterms.

The LDF government not

The Left Alternative in Education :The New Kerala Model

M A Baby


only attempted to stem the rot bytaking immediate corrective stepsbut also initiated structural changeswhich would rejuvenate educationin the state on a long term basis.The problems faced by the statewere in some ways different fromthose in other states and thesolutions had to be different aswell. The LDF was also convincedof the need to evolve an alternatestrategy of development that wouldbe truly inclusive in terms ofaccess, equity and quality, differentfrom the agenda of liberalisation,privatisation and globalisationpursued by the centralgovernment. This necessitated alot of thinking and planning atvarious levels. What emerged inthe process was a participatorymode for conceiving andimplementing reforms, which isperhaps the most importantinnovation of the LDF governmentin education during the last fiveyears.

EQUITY ANDEXCELLENCE

True to its commitment toproviding quality education for all,the government introduced aspecial scheme for thedevelopment of least performingschools in the state. It identified104 schools with less than 33 percent pass percentage in the SSLCexamination for special qualityenhancement programme. Theameliorative approach was not onlynovel in conception but inimplementation as well. The localself-governments and the localpeople collaborated with thegovernment in improvinginfrastructure and providingacademic ambience conducive toenhancement of quality. Thesuccess of the programme wasreflected in the SSLC results yearafter year. The average passpercentage in these schools was 80per cent in the last SSLCexamination. The performance ofthe students across the state hasalso improved over the last fiveyears. The clear indicator in this

regard is the SSLC examinationresults which saw pass percentageenhanced from 58 per cent in 2005to over 90 per cent in 2010. Thesuccess of the initiative promptedimplementation of similarprogrammes for SC/ST/Minoritystudents across the state. Anotherimportant step taken by thegovernment was to strengthen themid-day meal scheme by addingmilk and eggs twice a week. Apartfrom including the excluded, thesteps taken by the government forimproving the quality of the leastperforming schools/groups/individuals also helped evolve analternative model for public-private-partnership in education. The government could revive thedormant tradition of philanthropicpublic-private-partnership ineducation through theseprogrammes. The Kerala modelwhere private resources are madeavailable for public use is quitedifferent from the model of public-private-partnership beingimplemented by the centralgovernment which would result inprivate appropriation of public


assets. In a national-level studyconducted in 2010 by EducationalInitiatives, an Ahmedabad-basedNGO, with the support of Googleevaluating the learning levels ofgovernment school students inlanguages and Maths, Kerala hasemerged as the top performingstate.

The structural reformsundertaken by the LDFgovernment at the school levelinclude curricular reforms thathave brought about revolutionarychanges in the content andpedagogy of school education.Drawing upon the NationalCurriculum Framework (NCF),Kerala developed a KeralaCurriculum Framework (KCF). While adopting the basic principlesof social constructivism and criticalpedagogy advocated in the NCF,the KCF could localise itsimplementation by involving the

entire stakeholders includingstudents, teachers, parents andexperts. This was complementedby extensive training given toteachers in the nuances of the newcurriculum. The ban on recruitmentof teachers was lifted and morethan 5000 school teachers havesince been appointed. Thegovernment also facilitated theopening of additional batches forplus one courses in the Malabarregion, covering 120 panchayats,helping to enhance access,especially among Minoritystudents. A systematic effort wasmade to universalise IT educationand IT enabled education amongschool children which has beenwidely acclaimed. Steps were alsotaken to revise Kerala EducationalRules and to frame rules for theimplementation of the Right toEducation Act in the state.

The reforms introduced in

higher education also had the twinobjectives of promoting equity andexcellence. A number ofscholarships on merit-cum-meansbasis were introduced. In thehigher secondary level, 10,000scholarships each worth Rs 5000were instituted. The State HigherEducation Council introduced a fiveyear scholarship scheme. 1000scholarships are awarded eachyear to degree and post graduatestudents. A scholar will get 1.54lakh rupees over a five year period.The funds required for thescholarships are raised throughpublic-private-participation. TheCouncil has received contributionsbig and small, the latest being thecommitment to contribute Rs Fivecrores over a period of ten yearsby Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO ofInfosys. The government has alsoinstituted Suvarna JubileeScholarship for BPL category of


students and another scholarshipfor Muslim girls, apart fromimplementing the central sectorscholarships.

The government constitutedthe State Council for HigherEducation to innovate reforms andto co-ordinate theirimplementation. One of theimportant reforms initiated by theCouncil was to rejuvenate thegovernment and aided sector andtraditional disciplines. Steps weretaken to restructure theundergraduate programmes byintroducing choice-based-course-credit-semester system(CBCCSS) and grading. Kerala isperhaps the only state which hasfaithfully implemented the UGCvision on restructuring

undergraduate education. It waspossible to implement this complexreform without any hassles due tometiculous planning andimplementation under theleadership of the State HigherEducation Council. Theimplementation of the CBCCSShas opened up the opportunities forquality education for all, which is aremarkable departure from theprevailing practice of setting upexclusive islands of excellence. The object of the reform is todemocratise quality in highereducation. Kerala is the first statein the entire country to seriouslytake up the recommendations forsetting up clusters of colleges. AllEducation Commissions in freeIndia, starting with Kothari

Commission and including NationalKnowledge Commission havecommended the system of clustersof colleges, with a view toextending excellence from thecentre to the periphery by poolingintellectual and physical resourcesavailable among neighbouringcolleges. The scheme has nowbeen implemented on anexperimental basis inThiruvananthapuram, Kochi andKozhikode. The Higher EducationCouncil is also engaged in settingup a comprehensive data bank onhigher education in the state, thefirst effort of its kind in the wholecountry. The reports brought outby the Council on the State Policyon Higher Education, RestructuringUndergraduate Education, Scheme


of Cluster of Colleges, ExaminationReforms, Revision of UniversityActs etc. have evokedunprecedented popular interest inhigher education.

NOVEL SCHEME

The scholar-in-residenceprogramme (ERUDITE) is a novelscheme implemented by thegovernment for collaborating withinternationally renowneduniversities and their faculty. Thescheme provides for extended visitsby well known scholars to theuniversities in the state. A numberof renowned scholars, includingeight Nobel Laureates, have takenpart in the programme so far. Apart from its inspirational value,the visits of such scholars have alsoled to sustained academiccollaboration between theuniversities in the state and reputedforeign universities. The scheme isqualitatively different from thatpromoted by the centralgovernment which has piloted the‘Foreign Universities Bill’ tofacilitate the setting up of offcampus centres of foreignuniversities in the country. Thecentral initiative facilitatesacademic re-colonisation of India. Kerala’s experiment wouldpromote academic regenerationthrough collaborative engagementson a global scale.

The efforts of thegovernment to improve the qualityof education in the technicaleducation sector have borne fruits.Smart classes with internetconnectivity have been set up in allgovernment engineering colleges.Regular training programmes are

conducted for teachers. Forcontent development, schemessuch as K-base, The Scholar,Gurusmarana and Promelavya arebeing implemented. Qualityimprovement programme wasimplemented in Polytechnics. Seventeen Finishing Schools werealso set up to improve theemployability of the polytechnicpass outs.

Despite obstructionistinterventions from the vestedinterests and unhelpful judicialverdicts, the government could stillensure a modicum of social justicein the self-financing sector. Amajority of the self-financinginstitutions which were started

under the previous UDF regimewith no regulatory control could bebrought under an arrangement forseat sharing with the governmentand having socially sensitive feesstructure. The total commitment ofthe government to social justiceand its determination to ensure it,helped in overcoming successivechallenges in the self-financingsector. The achievements of theLDF government in Kerala in theself-financing sector acquire moresheen if pitted against theretrograde steps being taken by thecentral government in this sectorduring the last five years. Thecommon minimum programme(CMP) of UPA-I had promisedthat nobody would be deniedaccess to higher professionaleducation for want of financialresources. But the promise has notbeen redeemed so far. The draftbill prepared by MHRD in 2005 andthe draft regulations prepared byUGC in 2007 which containedseveral provisions for ensuringsocial justice have now been setaside. In their place, Kapil Sibalhas introduced the bill on‘Prevention of Unfair Practices inTechnical and Medical EducationalInstitutions’ which is intended tolegalise corporatisation andcommercialisation of technical andmedical education. There is noprovision in the bill for a commonentrance test (CET) or a singlewindow system (SWS) ofadmission. There is no provisionfor implementing constitutionallymandated reservation. There isalso no legal sanction for aninclusive fees structure. The billonly seeks to ensure transparency

The scholar-in-residence programme

(ERUDITE) is a novel schemeimplemented by the

government forcollaborating with

internationally renowneduniversities and theirfaculty. The scheme

provides for extended visitsby well known scholars to

the universities in thestate. A number of

renowned scholars,including eight Nobel

Laureates, have taken partin the programme so far.

Apart from its inspirationalvalue, the visits of such

scholars have also led tosustained academic

collaboration between theuniversities in the state and

reputed foreignuniversities.


in the business of education. Withthe enactment of the bill in theparliament, even the existingadmission and fees regulatorycommittees in the state will haveto be disbanded.

Even as Kerala wasimplementing its own uniqueprogrammes in higher education itwas also trying to make the bestuse of enhanced central assistancefor higher education. A number ofnew institutions including IndianInstitute of Space Science andTechnology (IIST), Indian Instituteof Science Education andResearch (IISER), a CentralUniversity and a Centre of AligarhMuslim University have been setup in the state during the last fiveyears with central assistance. TheNational Centre for MolecularMaterials, Regional Centre ofIndian Institute of MassCommunication and the WorldClass Central University will beestablished. The Centre forEngineering Research andDevelopment (CERD) isestablished to encourage basic and

applied research in engineering andtechnology and the TrivandrumEngineering Science andTechnology Research (TREST)Park is established to enhanceindustry-institute interaction and topromote R&D activities. A numberof Inter-University centres havebeen set up in the state on themodel of such centres set up bythe UGC which would hopefullydevelop into advanced centresdoing study and research in frontierinter-disciplinary areas includingbio-informatics, intellectualproperty rights and developmentstudies, environment andsustainable development,nanomaterials and devices,biosciences, disability studies,social science research andextension, Kerala legacy ofastronomy and mathematics, plantbiotechnology, marinebiotechnology, genomics and genetechnology and biomedicalresearch. The Raja Ravi VarmaCentre of Excellence for VisualArts is envisaged as an interuniversity centre in Visual Arts.

School for Performance,Aesthetics and Culture (SPACE)is an interdisciplinary research andstudy centre of unique characterfor creating aesthetic awarenessand experience and for promotingthe study of performing arts andcultural practices.

In addition to these, newcolleges and courses were startedin government, aided and unaidedsectors. The 12 year ban onappointment of teachers was liftedby the government. More than2500 teachers were appointed incolleges and universities during thelast five years. Of this 1700 wereappointed to new posts createdduring the period. While theprevious UDF government hadprogressively reduced the budgetallocation for higher education, theLDF government increased thebudgetary allocation year afteryear. The non-plan grant foruniversities alone was enhancedfrom Rs 790 crore in 2005-06 toRs 2296 crore in 2011-12.

Education is the key todevelopment in a knowledgesociety. It is necessary to ensurethe continuance of the policiesinitiated by the LDF governmentfor consolidating the gains madeand making it more inclusive byexpanding its base. In the contextof the coming elections, it is notenough to assess the reformsalready implemented. Theimpending reforms are asimportant as the reforms alreadyimplemented. The agenda ofreforms presented at the thirdInternational Congress on KeralaDevelopment assumes criticalimportance in this context.


It is a company that has been thesubject of an international

boycott for over 23 years –perhaps the longest standingboycott of a global corporation. Ithas been labeled by activistorganisations as a “baby killer” forpersistent unethical marketing ofbreast milk substitutes. Yet thesame company, media reportsindicate, has signed a memorandumof understanding with four publicsector educational institutions.Recent reports in the press (Timesof India, dated January 1, 2011)suggest that Nestle India, a 61.9per cent subsidiary of Nestle S A of Switzerland, signed an MOUwith Punjab Agricultural University(PAU) Ludhiana; National DairyResearch Institute, Karnal,Haryana; University of Mysore inKarnataka; and the GB PantUniversity for Agriculture andTechnology, Pantnagar,Uttarakhand. Under the MoU,Nestle staff along with the facultyof these universities launched a“nutrition education” programme.This joint initiative, it is understood,was launched in April 2009 byminister of state for ruraldevelopment Agatha Sangma alongwith Nestle India chairman HelioWaszyk.

Universities Play Footsie withCompany Labeled ‘Baby Killer’

MOU SHROUDED INSECRECY The story gets murkierstill. PAU has refused to giveinformation about the MoU and thedetails of the nutrition educationprogramme, in response to a RTIapplication. It has now beenreported that information about theMoU was refused as the MoUitself states that: “This MoU, itsexistence and all informationexchanged between the partiesunder this MoU or during thenegotiations preceding thisMoU is confidential to them andmay not be shared with a thirdparty”. The Times of India reportsthat the head of the department ofnutrition in PAU, Dr J K Sangha,actually wrote to Nestle seeking itspermission to reply to the RTIpetition. In his reply dated July 1,2010, the senior manager ofcorporate affairs in Nestle, AjayPal Singh Kang, wrote back stating:“We wish to inform you that allcontents of the programme beingconducted jointly by PAU andNestle India have been speciallydeveloped by scientists andexperts to be used exclusively tocarry out the set objectives of theMoU. The contents of theprogramme are of commercial

and confidential nature and thedisclosure of which may harmour competitive position…Therefore, we are constrained todecline our consent for thesupply or disclosure, to any thirdparty, of any information ordocument pertaining to this jointcollaboration.” The obvious question thatneeds to be asked is why aprogramme on “nutritioneducation” should be shrouded insuch secrecy, and further whatcould be the “commercial andconfidential” nature of such aprogramme. The questions areparticularly important given that thecompany involved is Nestle. TheUK based Corporate Watchwebsite says: “The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) estimatesthat 1.5 million infants die eachyear because of inappropriatefeeding, because childrenvulnerable to disease are beingbottle-fed on breast milksubstitutes rather than breastfedwhenever possible. As the world’slargest artificial baby milkproducer controlling 40 per centof the market, Nestlé has beenseen as a leading cause of thiscatastrophe..”

Amit Sen Gupta


INTERNATIONAL CODEON MARKETING Responding to globalconcerns about the unethical natureof marketing of breast milksubstitutes, the WHO in 1981formulated the International Codeof Marketing of BreastmilkSubstitutes. India formulated itsown law, keeping in mind theprovisions of the code, in 1992. TheAct, known as the Infant MilkSubstitutes Act (IMS) was furtherstrengthened through amendmentsin 2003.

The WHO code includesseveral acts that baby foodcompanies such as Nestle shouldnot do:

• promote their products inhospitals, shops or to thegeneral public;

• give free samples tomothers or free orsubsidised supplies tohospitals or maternitywards;

• give gifts to health workersor mothers;

• promote their products tohealth workers: anyinformation provided bycompanies must containonly scientific and factualmatters;

• promote foods or drinksfor babies;

• give misleadinginformation

The code further says that:• There should be no

contact between babymilk company salespersonnel and mothers.

• Labels must be in alanguage understood by

the mother and mustinclude a clear healthwarning.

• Baby pictures may not beshown on baby milk labels.

• The labels must not includelanguage which idealisesthe use of the product.

Nestle has been singled out,internationally, as the biggestviolator of this code. In 2004,monitoring results from 69 countriesshowed up over 2,000 violations ofthe code, and Nestlé was foundresponsible for more violations thanany other company. But then, thisis befitting of a company that takespride in being the world’s largestand most “diversified foodcompany” in the world, witharound 2,50,000 employeesworldwide, 500 factories inapproximately 100 countries andoffering over 8,000 products tomillions of consumers universally.In India, Nestle markets itsproducts in four key categories –milk products, beverages, prepareddishes and cooking aids,chocolates & confectionery.Nestle has been the market leaderwith 70 per cent share in the Rs1000 crore instant noodles marketand in the infant baby foodsegment. Outside the baby foodmarket, Nestle’s prominent brandsinclude Nescafe, Maggi andKitKat. DIVERSE METHODS TOSUBVERT THE LAW Faced with negative publicityand legal measures instituted inmany countries, companies such asNestle have consistently tried tocircumvent the WHO code and

country laws. A regular ploy hasbeen to resort to double standardswhile advertising its products — ie advertise the same productdifferently in countries of the Northand the South. In 2008, Nestle wascaught out when an advertisementfor Maggie Noodles claimed itstrengthened muscles and bones.The Advertising StandardsAuthority (ASA) banned theadvertisement in the UK and saidthat it was deceptive and violatedthe UK’s strict industry code.Nestle, claimed that their productsthat were due to appear inBangladesh had been accidentallyaired in Britain! Another common ploy hasbeen to tie up with professionalorganisations on issues that wouldappear to be of “public interest”,and thereby try to influence them.To do so, in India, Nestle uses asurrogate front organisation – theNestle Nutrition Institute. TheBreast Promotion Network ofIndia (the Indian Chapter of theInternational Breast Feeding ActionNetwork) reported last year thatthe Institute had sponsoredconferences of doctors in Kolkataand Chennai on “Emerging Trendsin Pediatric Nutrition”. Suchsponsorships clearly violateprovisions of the Infant MilkSubstitutes Act in India. This is by no means an isolatedinstance. Last year thePostgraduate Institute of MedicalEducation & Research (PGIMER)in Chandigarh was embroiled in asimilar controversy. NestleNutrition Institute had been listedas one of the sponsors of the 16th

annual conference on nutritionsponsored by the Indian Society for


Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition(ISPEN). The sponsorship dealwas called off at the last momentwhen the matter was made publicby the Breast Feeding PromotionNetwork in India. The issue hadeven prompted the secretaries ofthe ministries of health and womenand child development to write ajoint letter asking for a ban onsponsorship by baby foodmanufacturers or their frontorganisations of health workers,doctors or meetings of theirassociations. The letter had pointedout numerous instances ofcorporate sponsorship andunethical practices such as: offering to set up libraries in medicalcolleges; approaching

paediatricians and providing themwith gifts and also distributinginfant feeding booklets withmisleading information on infantfeeding in several hospitals, etc. Nestle has resorted tounethical tactics to promote itsother products as well. In 2010Nestle was made to withdraw TVcommercials aired between Apriland June, by the AdvertisingStandards Council of India (ASCI).ASCI decreed that Nestle MaggiKetchup’s claims of being healthywas misleading – Nestle’scommercial showed an obese andaged gentleman consumingunhealthy burgers with claims of“Make India Healthy.”

CORPORATE INTERESTSARE SUPREME Clearly, Nestle has acolourful track record that shouldhave prompted public institutions tothink twice before deciding to playfootsie. This is not just a conflictof interest issue. It goes beyond andinvolves vexing issues that are seento arise today as educationalinstitutions are being forced toraise extra resources, and therebymaking themselves available forpredation by commercial interests.But then, one can argue that intoday’s climate corporate interestsrank way above public interest –even when they put into jeopardythe lives of countless infants.

T he Central ExecutiveCommittee of the Students’

Federation of India (SFI)expresses its strong protest in theshocking decision taken by theUnited States of making someIndian students of the Californiabased Tri Valley University wearradio collars round their ankles tomonitor their movements. Thestudents have gone there with allthe legal documents. The visa andother necessary papers are in theirhand. They are cornered justbecause the university turns outto be illegal and not registered asper the US law. The fundamentalhuman rights of the students arebeing denied. This is totallyinhuman and unacceptable. TheMinistry of External Affairs shouldtake up the matter with US at

appropriate level to ensureimmediate removal of the collars.They must get all legal help for theirshifting to other universities or ifthey want to return to India theymust be able to do so honourablyand must not be deported. This is not for the first time theIndian students were made victimsof sham universities abroad and thesame sort of universities are goingto come in India thanks to thepolicies of the Central Government.SFI has been demanding thegovernment to withdraw the ForeignEducation Providers Bill. SFI urges the government andall the statutory authorities to blacklist all the education institutionsabroad that are cheating studentswith their false claims and fakeregistrations. These institutions are

playing on the ignorance of thepeople and looting crores of rupeesfrom them using the increasingdemand for higher education inour country. The failure of thegovernment to meet this demandfor higher education too added tothe advantage of these dubiousinstitutions. The government haddone precious little to check theenrolment of Indian students insuch institutions apart from‘appealing’ to the people not to fallin their trap. SFI demands the governmentto immediately initiate stringentaction to deliver all the necessaryassistance to these students. It isthe responsibility of thegovernment to act and protect thepeople of our country from fallingprey to these institutions.

Tri Valley University:An Experience from the Dubious Institution


Students’ Federation of India, underthe leadership of Karnataka StateUnit, took out a successful massiverally of students to Vidhana Soudhaon Thursday, 26th February 2011,in Bangalore demandingReservation of 30% of Satebudget for Education for solutionto all the burning problems facedby the Students-Teaching

community right from primaryeducation upto higher education.

Students who had come fromdifferent districts of the State,flaunting dazzling white banners ofLiberty, Democracy an Socialism,and shouting Slogans against theEducation Policy of StateGovernment, took out a MammothProtest Rally from Chikka lall bagh

to Vidhana Soudha. The boomingslogans by students of schools andcolleges were echoing deprivationof the facilities of education andgrave problems as a result of theGovernment’s education policy.

The protest rally convergednear the Freedom Park onSheshadri Road. Com.Ananthanayak, State Secretary of SFI gave

Successful vidhana soudha chaloDemanding

Reservation of 30% of Sate budget for Education AndSolutions of burning problems in education


an introductory speech. Com. G.V.Sreerama Reddy, former Legislatorand founder leader of SFIaddressing the gathering, statedthat the Central &m StateGovernments have failed inproviding free education to all,even after 62 years ofindependence. He criticized thatthe present UPA Government,which has silently ignored thereports of six previous commissionsfor Education reforms, is in a greathurry to implement report ofProf.yashpal, with t6he goal ofprivatizing, centralising andcommercializing Education in theCountry.

Useless B.J.P.Government:BJP Government ruling the stateis completely immersed in

corruption and creating anarchy inthe State. The Government whichtook over power in the name ofprogress is looting the State. It isin a great hurry to commercialiseand trade Education in the State.The Government, which is notbothered to provide even the basicfacilities to students, by lobbying infavour of private educationalinstitutions supportingcommunalization and privatisationof education, has become a totallyirresponsible and uselessGovernment. When the Studentscommunity and the people areengulfed in hosts of problems, theCoward Chief Minister lamentsthat this life in under threat. If hecan not protect his own life, whocan protect the students-boys and

girls studying in schools andcolleges and staying in hostels?Mr.Sreeram Reddy called upon thestudents’ community to oust theuseless and coward Chief Ministerand his Government.

The Pseudo struggle ofABVP: He said that the ABVPorganisation which is carrying onagitation against corruptionthroughout the nation is supportingthe corrupt State government andis waging mock battle. He calledupon the students to wage decisivebattle against the ABVP which ismisleading the Students’community and also against theCorrupt BJP Government.Com.Rajashekhara Murthy, StateSecretary of DYFI, addressing therally, said that on the one side,


students of poor and backwardcommunities are deprived ofeducation as a result of steepincreasing in education fees and onthe other hand creating a vast armyof unemployed by not generatingemployment to the educated youth.Hence he called for intensificationof agitation for education &employment to all.

Next, addressing the Rally,Com. Lakshmi, General SecretaryAIDWA, pointed out that thenumber of girls is higher amongthose deprived of education in theState. She said even the numberof girls going for higher educationis still less. The increasingeducation fees and

commercialization of education,and discriminative policy of State& Central Government, is the mainreason for this , and she calledupon the students organisation tobuild up strong resistance to defeatthese policies.

Arrival of Minister andpromise of fulfilling demands.

Sri Narayana Swamy,Minister for Social Welfare, whoarrived on behalf of theGovernment, received thememorandum and assured ofenhancing the food allowance forhostel students and improving basicamenities in hostels. He alsopromised that he would discussother demands of students with the

Chief Minister, and then invite SFIleaders for discussion.Com.H.R.Naveen Kumar, StatePresident of SFI, speaking on theoccasion, stressed that Governmentmust enhance the budget provisionfor Education and accede to all ourdemands. He cautioned that statewide agitation would be called forin the coming days, if theGovernment fails to accede to ourdemands.

State Office bearers of SFI,Coms .Hulli Ramesh, Soumya,Jagadeesh Surya, Vinay Kumar,M.G.Narayana Kale andCom.Chikkaraju, BangaloreDistrict leader addressed theRallying Students.


This year marks the completionof 20 years since neo-liberal

policies were unleashed in India.In the last two decades of neo-liberal regime in the country,inequality and poverty haveincreased manifold. The rich havegrown increasingly rich, the poorhave gone further down theladder. India today has thedubious distinction of being hometo highest number of hungrypeople in the world. The statisticsof unemployment, hunger,undernutrition, poor maternal andchild health, low humandevelopment indices stare all of usin the face. The situation has beendeteriorating further after theglobal economic crisis, which hasled to a loss in export markets andearnings. Back home we areseeing cascading prices andshameless plunder of country’sresources through corruptpractices. The biggest victims of thisflawed crony capitalistdevelopment have been the toilingmasses: working classes, farmersof the country. Farmer suicidescontinue unabated even today.Unemployment has reachedalarming proportions at 9.4%according to a survey conductedby the Labour Bureau. There are

government estimates whichsuggest that more than 76% of thecountry’s population is living on aper capita expenditure of less thanRs 20 per day. More than 94%of the country’s workforce is inthe unorganized sector without anysocial security, employee’sbenefits or even adherence tobasic labour laws. The government on the otherhand is least bothered. All the tallpromises made by the UPA beforethe elections regarding pro-people/working class measures havebeen put in the cold storage. Infact, it is aiding these predatorypractices continuously. Thebiggest example of this can beseen on the issue of price rise. Onthe one hand there is a stubbornrefusal to provide relief to thepeople through providing cheapfoodgrains to the people, lakhs oftonnes of which are rotting ingovernment warehouses and onthe other, the government is addingfuel to fire by increasing prices ofpetroleum products and allowingspeculative activities in the foodgrain market. The renewedoffensive with regard todisinvestment of Public SectorUnits is another such example. The recent press conferenceheld by the Prime Minister where

he has equated the concessions tocorporates in the 2G scam tosubsidies for the poor is a starkreminder of the pro-rich mindsetof this government. It is in this backdrop that allmajor trade unions are goingto hold a massive mobilizationin Delhi on February 23rd. Allmajor trade unions of thecountry have given this call topress for not just demandsrelated to workers or the tradeunion movement, but for thepeople at large. The maindemands to be raised are:

Universalisation of thePDS and stoppingspeculative trade andblack marketing infood items.Strict adherence oflabour laws and actionagainst any violationsMaking employmentsecurity in recession hitsectors a part of incen-tives for entrepreneursand increasing publicinvestment for employ-ment generation.Enacting Social Secu-rity laws forunorganised sectorworkers and doingaway with the any BPL

Solidarity with massive working classstruggle


requirements to availof these schemes.Stopping disinvestmentof PSUs to meet thebudget deficit.

Reports about the review ofpreparations have indicatedthat lakhs of workers are goingto assemble in Delhi on the23rd. It is being said that thismarch will be the biggest workingclass mobilisation in Delhi after1992. We believe that it isimperative for the students to alsoshow solidarity to the struggle ofthe working classes. A look at thedevelopments worldover onlyunderlines the need to do so.Today, students and youth acrossthe world are rising in protestagainst the neo-liberal anti-people

policies. The failed promises offree market and neo-liberalismwhich have been laid bare by theaftermaths of the economic crisiseven in the developed world, haveput a fresh wave of energy in thestudent and youth movementsworldwide. Across Europe,students and youth have come outin streets in hundreds ofthousands, not only to protestagainst cuts in education spending,but also in solidarity with theworking class struggles. The roleof students and youth in thedemocratic upsurge in Tunisiaand Egypt cannot beoverlooked. Carrying forwardthe inspiration from theseplaces, students and youthacross various other countriesof the Arab are also rising inprotest against the ruling

regimes. The images of youngpeople in protest actions speak forthemselves. When the world atlarge is seeing these changesand the ruling classes arelosing credibility among themasses-who are slowly risingin protest against unjustregimes and inequitablegrowth trajectories-it isimperative that the students inIndia also stand in solidaritywith the working classes. 23rd

February, it is being said will be amilestone in the history of workingclass assertions in India.

The SFI CEC callsupon all its units to holdsolidarity actions on February23rd across the country andexpress support to the struggleof the working classes.


23 February Workers’ Rally:From the Eyes of a Student

It has been almost seven yearssince I have working in SFI-

JNU, as an activist in thebeginning and later, coming intothe leadership. However, in thisentire time frame, 23 February,2011 will stand out as Red letterDay, when on the solidarity callgiven by SFI, students from threeuniversities in Delhi-DU, Jamiaand JNU marched along withlakhs and lakhs of workers fromacross the length and breadth ofIndia, who had been mobilizedfollowing a Joint Call given by 9Trade Unions. The march literallybrought centre of the NationalCapital to a virtual standstill. Thismassive mobilization cannot bejust seen from the prism of theWorkers; the central demands alsovery much concerned and went totouch nerves of the common man.

Students’ Role in Solidarityto the Working Classes:

As a student, having been

trained and empowered throughthe larger left ideology, workingclass struggles have alwaysprovided me with inspiration; infact, it always injected in me witha special kind of awe. The earlydays as an activist itself, many ofus comrades, were also part ofthe protests against brutallathicharge and repression onagitating workers of Hondafactory in Gurgaon by Police in2005. Having been closelyassociated with those protests andalso joining other seniorcomrades, in enforcing strikes inindustrial areas like Okhla onnational calls, also charged me up.

Ever since this rally plan wasannounced, I was greatlyinterested in attending it. Assecretary of the JNU Unit of SFI,I also had the greaterresponsibility of mobilizing greaternumber of people in theorganization as well as commonstudents to join the rally in large

numbers. More than joining theworkers in the March, I was alsogreatly interested in being avolunteer and helping out theCITU comrades in setting up andhelping out, in the residentialcamp, put up for accommodatingcomrades coming from acrossIndia in Ramlila Maidan in thecapital. After having closelyfollowed the rising upsurge of thepeople in the Arab world,especially in Tunisia and Egypt,where after long days of intensestruggle and perseverance, thepeople successfully brought abouta revolution and dumpingdictatorial regimes. Not only this,the fact that militant students’struggles in many parts of Europewere also added boosters.However, one was also sad byseeing the fact four suicides hadbrought down regimes in Tunisia,but even after lakhs of farmersuicides, the situation in India stillremained unchanged. My mindwas also calling for ‘Tahrirs’ to

P.K. Anand


unveil in our country. It is in thiscontext that I heard about themassive working classmobilization on 23 February.

I feel that the biggest aspectof the students’ solidarity with theworking class for this rally wasalso because majority of thedemands resonated with the aamaadmi. Primarily, demanding thegovernment to curb rising pricesand universalize the publicdistribution system rallied with thestudents as well. Spiralling pricesbreak the back of the commonman-who is definitely from theWorking Class. No proper foodto nourish them in the event ofthese rising prices as well as otherrelated aspects like hoarding andblack marketing, greatly affect thestruggling masses of this country.Other demands like stoppingcontractualization, retrenchments,strengthen public sector, andinitiating social security schemesfor the unorganized sector alsogreatly resonated with thestruggles waged by SFI againstneo-liberal policies in

education. Also, a crucial aspectis the fact that, I also had a dutyto fulfill. My academics had beensubsidized; I am getting a goodscholarship; Hostel fees areminimal. This all is the result of themoney paid by the tax payers ofthis country, mostly workers andpeasants. Their blood and sweatfund my education. So, morallytoo, there is strong bond, withthose unseen faces. Therefore,when their rights are under attackand their issues have to be foughtfor through struggles, it is also atime to give back. Stand in unisonwith their issues, join them in theirmobilization, echo their slogansand give whatever possible help.My days of working in SFI havealso taught me this-perhaps thebiggest lesson in my life.

I also feel that students do notjust remain confined to raising theirown demands and fighting singledomain struggles. Such insulationfrom the larger struggles outsidethe confines of campuses does nogood in further augmenting thosedomain struggles as well. Simple

phrase-mongering as done by theultra-left in the name of‘revolution’ cannot be the wayforward. It is only through strongpraxis, in the form of actualmobilization with the largerstruggles that further boost andstrengthen the student movementfor greater struggles ahead. It issuch inspiration that was providedby marching in arms with theworking classes and echoing theirslogans, on 23 February.

Being a Red Guard andCamp Volunteer

All the student comrades ofthe SFI became the Red Guards.Donning the red attire andcarrying flags/banners, theymarched in front of the rally. Suchan experience not only gave asense of pride, but also was anoccasion to rise above the middleclass background, from whichmost of the students come from.Most of the SFI activists andstudents also felt an greatexperience being part of thisgroup. Being the Red Guard alsobrought me out of my comfortzone, into direct contact with thelarger progressive movement,thereby making me sync with itsebb and flow. In waging strugglesin the futures, this experiencewould also stand in good stead.The niceties and compactnessassociated with the middle classesstand in contrast with the dailystruggles of the working class.Hence, being a red guardvolunteer lifted my spirits, andmade me look beyond my crassmiddle class confines. In fact, it


was getting inspiration from theworking class. This was also amoment when in literal terms, theMarxist theories learnt inclassroom discussions anddebates, were joined in theconcrete terms as a symphony inpraxis. That was also a crucialpoint that was reflected in thisrally. In an age, where middle-class cynicism and apathy havealways been directed towardssuch genuine struggles andmovements-a fact that findsreflection in the way electronic andprint media blacked out the rally-such solidarity in praxis by thestudents in this rally, also augurswell and builds foundations forlarger movements in the daysahead. It’s like planting a seed thatshould be nurtured well, so that itgrows into a fruit-bearing tree, inthe future. Being a red guard notonly instilled in me, a sense pride,but greatly resonated even in theslogans of other studentcomrades. Coming from variouslanguage backgrounds anddifferent states, slogans fromdifferent languages rent the air,

upfront the rally. We also sungrevolutionary songs, which wasmotivational for the participants inthe rally. Also, working andvolunteering in the residentialcamp at Ramlila Maidan alsomade me conscious of thearduous and painful struggleswaged by the workers to defendtheir rights and fight for genuinedemands. Many of my fellowcomrades also experienced thesame feeling, rather than beingfeeling overburdening withresponsibilities. Having seen thecommon masses, walkingbarefooted and carrying theirfamilies wit them, also shatteredmany middle class aspirations inme. Seeing the Delhi roadsblocked, also gave a sense ofsatisfaction: the working class onthat day had clearly won overthe nouveau rich, cynical and thepessimists in the city; being in atraffic block for a few hours wasworth it.

Another aspect, which I feelis also crucial is the role of thestudents-youth in further

disseminating the effect of the rally.While the mainstream mediavirtually neglected the rally, socialnetworking sites like Facebookand Twitter were swarmed withcomments and photographs of therally. The uses of new media tonot only propagate the demandsof the working classes, but alsoto counter ruling class agenda isalso a hallmark of this rally. Therole of myself and other studentcomrades, even after the rally inthis aspect, is also worthmentioning. The fact that suchmedia have also been used as sitesof struggle is also a crucial aspectthat needs to be analyzed andstrengthened in the days to come.

Overall, seeing a sea ofpeople, out on the streetsautomatically gets one charged upand voice support for genuinedemands. That was whathappened literally, on 23February. That day, the streets ofDelhi and Parliament Street, wherethe Rally converged clearlybrought forth the images of TahrirSquare. After being part of such amassive mobilization, one cansurely guess the mammoth size ofthe Million people swarmingCairo’s Central Square for 18days continuously. This experiencealso serves as booster for vibrantlife of the student movement, andshakes away any sense ofmonotony. Solidarity in boththeory and praxis as well as Oncein a Lifetime Experience-that’show one can best sum upparticipation in this rally as student/activist.


Students have always had animportant role to play in

transforming the societyhistorically. In our country rightfrom the days of freedom strugglestudents have been at the forefrontof struggles and have madenumerous sacrifices also. The SFItraces its origins to the formationof the All India Students’Federation in 1936 which had aglorious contribution in the struggleagainst the British Rule. The year2010 is the 40th year of the SFI’sformation. In the last four decadeswe have continuously mobilizedstudents holding high the bannerof Independence, Democracy andSocialism.

The struggle against thedraconian emergency imposed byIndira Gandhi’s CongressGovernment, a steadfast political-ideological struggle against thesecession movements in Assam,Punjab and Jammu and Kashmirwhich were aimed at dividing ourcountry, struggle against the NewEducation Policy of the RajivGandhi government whichunleashed privatization andcommercialization, the struggleagainst anti-reservationreactionaries after the MandalCommission recommendations

and the struggle againstcommunalization andsaffronization drive of the BJP ledNDA are some of the gloriousstruggles waged by the SFI in itshistory.

Today students are advisedto stay away from politics andstudent activism is portrayed assomething which is bound tocreate problems and do harm tothe student community. The SFIhas always appealed to studentsto join student activism with theslogan of

WHEN POLITICS DECIDEDYOUR FUTURE, YOUMUST DECIDE WHATYOUR POLITICS IS!

India despite of its highgrowth rates of GDP continues toone of the most backwardcountries in the field of education.Our adult literacy rate is still around61%. Only 12% of our youth getan opportunity to attend anyhigher educational institution ever.Government expenditure oneducation in our country is one ofthe lowest even among thedeveloping countries. We areranked 134th in the UNDP’sHuman Development Index,lower than many African countries

who are much more poor andunderdeveloped than we are.

Today we see in front of oureyes a concerted onslaught ofcentralization, commercializationand privatization of educationespecially in the colleges anduniversities. Education isincreasingly becoming costly andout of reach for the commonpopulation and hence majority ofthe students in our country.Imparting education has becomesimilar to any other activity formerely seeking profits. Under theregime of the UPA Governmentand HRD Minister Mr. KapilSibal, floodgates have beenopened for this onslaught on theeducation sector. It is increasinglybeing propagated that collegesand universities should recover alltheir costs from the students. Thegovernment itself is trying hard tolegitimize the view that private andeven foreign players are the bestsolutions for addressing theproblems of education sector inour country. This government hasbrought in a lot of legislations likethe Foreign Education Providers’Bill, the National Commission forHigher Education and ResearchBill, the National EducationTribunal Bill which if passed would

Students’ Federation of India40 Years of Study, Struggle & Sacrifice


fundamentally alter the structure ofhigher education in our country.

ON WHOSE BEHALF ISTHE GOVERNMENTACTING?

Today education policy isbeing determined by businessmenand corporate houses. Some yearsago we had a Birla-AmbaniReport on education in ourcountry, which advocated rampantprivatization of education.Recently in the meeting of theIndo-US joint CEO Forum inWashington the demand foropening up education to foreignplayers was the most importantagenda. Today almost allCorporate Houses have privateengineering and medical collegesand even universities in ourcountry. We see billboards ofprivate universities all along theroad, as if they are some apparelbrand. These institutions chargehuge amounts of money and oftenprovide sub-standard education.Similar is the case with the foreignproviders, most of which areregarded as poor institutions ornot even recognized in theircountries of origin.

The government’s policiesare catering to the interests ofthese sections and not thestudents. The government isincreasingly withdrawing from thesphere of education paving wayfor the private profit-seekers totake over. Educational policies arebeing designed keeping in mindwhat the corporate sector wantsrather than something whichwould help students understand

the socio-economic problems ofour society. Research is dictatedby private multi-nationalcorporations rather than helpingthe poor and the downtrodden.The vision of the government informulating education policies isonly limited to the minority ofhomogenous India which is“shining” and has harvested all thegains of neo-liberal reforms. Thevast majority which has laggedbehind and symbolizes the socio-cultural diversity of the country hasbeen completely left out.

WHAT IS HAPPENINGWITH EDUCATION ISONLY A REFLECTION OFTHE LARGER PICTURE

The last two decades of neo-liberal reforms in our country haveinflicted devastation and miseryfor the common people of thecountry. More than two lakhfarmers have committed suicidesin the last ten years or so. Todaypeople are reeling under the impactof a massive price-hike especiallyin food commodities. But we havea government where the PrimeMinister justifies hikes in price ofPetrol, Diesel, LPG and Kerosenein the name of national interest.Our Agriculture Minister is moreinterested in IPL than addressingthe problems of a country whichhas the highest number of hungrypeople in the world. “Profits overPeople” is what explains thephilosophy of the neo-liberalideologues which run the countrytoday. Recently we saw thetravesty of justice in the judgmentof Bhopal Gas Tragedy where

25000 innocent lives were too lessa price for the government towake up and take stern actionagainst the accused. The CivicNuclear Liability Bill, which hasbeen placed in the Parliamentplans to absolve foreign suppliersof any responsibility in case ofnuclear accidents which could befar worse than even Bhopal. Butthe pressure from US imperialismhas meant that the government iseven willing to legalize murder inthe country. The Congress whichmade promises to the Aam Admiin the elections is acting on behalfof the Khas Admi once it hasrecaptured power.

The neo-liberal policies havealso led to rampant corruption inIndia. Numerous scams haverocked the country in the past fewmonths. The governments led bybourgeois parties both at thecentre and in different states haveshown a lackadaisical approach inpunishing those who areplundering our national resourcesthrough corrupt practices.

UNITE AGAINSTDIVISIVE FORCES

While people continue tosuffer, reactionary sectionscontinue to spread hatred andterror in our society. Terrorism isgrowing in the entire South Asianregion today, killing thousands ofinnocent people every where.Communal forces also continue toplay their nefarious games. TheCountry has not forgotten the daysof the BJP led NDA governmentwhen state sponsored pogromslike Gujarat were carried out. It is


also important to understand thatterrorism has no religion or colourand is anti-people. The recentfindings which have found theinvolvement of the RSS in terrorattacks in India are a fitting rebuffto the idea that terrorism is onlyconfined to a particular religion.

ANARCHIST VIOLENCE INTHE NAME OF LEFTMUST BE REJECTED

Mindless violence and killingsby the armed the self-styledMaoists in the name of Left alsoneed to be condemned inunequivocal terms. Forces like theMaoists, who claim to fight for thedowntrodden have onlygenerated a cycle of violence andcounter-violence between themand the security forces, makingpoor people mostly tribals cannonfodder in between. Most of thepeople killed by these Maoists arealso poor people and tribals.

It is important that we isolateall those who support such acts inthe name of Left.

OUR SOCIETY ONTINUESTO BE A PRISONER TOREGRESSIVE SHACKLES

IN THE NAME OFTRADITION

Today, we have the dubiousdistinction of being the pioneer inadvanced fields like InformationTechnology and having social evilslike untouchability, dowry, femalefoeticide, honour killings etc.Conflicts based on religion, andcaste continue to traumatize ourcountry from time to time.Frustrated youth are beingdirected against each other byregional chauvinists like RajThakeray in Mumbai. Religiousfundamentalist organizations havedeveloped into terrorist groupwho are killing innocent people inIndia and our neighbouringcountries. Delhi has been termedas one of the most unsafe citiesfor women in the world. Sexualharassment is a fact of life forwomen both inside and outsideeducational institutions. Theblames for these crimes are put onthe women themselves on theexcuse of their clothes andcharacter rather than condemningit unequivocally. A country wheremore than 50% of the populationis in its youth does not even givethe basic freedom to its youth to

choose their life partners.Everyday we hear news of honourkillings, where youth are beingkilled for marrying their partnersoutside their castes. Theseincidents are now unfortunatelyspreading to all parts of thecountry be it villages in NorthIndian states or Metro Cities likeDelhi or Mumbai.

The SFI has been at theforefront of fighting thesestruggles. The SFI believes thateducation is meaningless if we donot struggle against these medievalvices our society is still ridden with.As future citizens, especially thosewho have been fortunate enoughto get perhaps the best educationin the country, it is our duty to gobeyond our textbooks and adopta scientific and critical worldview.And if we do not agree that theworld we live in is a just world, itis necessary that we make ourefforts to make it more just andequal, rather than makecompromises or developcynicism. Karl Marx had put itbeautifully when he said,“Philosophers have interpreted theworld in various ways, the pointhowever is to change it.”

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ANARCHIC forces hadmounted up steep

resistance in the early seventieswhen the journey had begun.Fierce attacks on democraticrights throughout the country andunleashing of semi fascist terrorin West Bengal were thepredominant trends of that era. Successfully combating allchallenges, the Students’Federation of India had emerged

to be most dominating voice of thestudents across the country in thelast four decades. The fourdecades of SFI has witnessed itsactive participation on differentissues of the student life and thesociety which has shaped itsonward march to be the strongestand largest representative of thestudent community in our country.From a membership of one lakhand twenty three thousand during

its inception, the organisationtoday represents more than fortyfour lakhs of students in thecountry. And in this eventfuljourney, innumerable comrades ofSFI have made supreme sacrificesin order to hold aloft the bannerof ‘Independence, Democracy,Socialism”. Commemorating theglorious ‘Four decades of Study,Struggle and Sacrifice,” SFIvowed that the struggle for the

Four Decades of Study Struggle & SacrificeCalls for Strengthening the Battle of Ideas

Ritabrata Banerjee


alternative, necessary to build ahappy and prosperous India, willbe strengthened amidst allobstacles.

REMARKABLEJOURNEY

The year 2010 marks the40th year of the formation of SFI.The journey from 1970 to 2010has been a remarkable andinspiring one for the progressivestudent movement. The SFIcentral executive committeedecided to take up variousprogrammes to celebrate andsalute these forty years of Study,Struggle and Sacrifice. It wasfurther decided that the

programmes would highlight thehistory and development of theorganisation as well as theideological-political thrust whichhas been the hallmark of the SFI.

The inaugural programme inthe form of an open rally was heldin Kolkata on September 15.Netaji Nagar was chosen as thevenue of the meeting. In 1970, theprogressive student leadership ofdifferent states met at NetajinagarVidyamandir from June 1-7,discussing about the formation ofSFI and a preparatory committeewas formed with Biman Basu asthe convenor. Later in the monthof December (27-30), SFI cameinto being through the first

all India conference held atTagore Centenary hall,Thiruvanathapuram.

The programme wasinaugurated by the founder generalsecretary of SFI, Biman Basu bywaving the flag of ‘Independence,Democracy, and Socialism’.Former all India president,Sitaram Yechury was also presentin the programme. Theprogramme will conclude with anopen rally in Thiruvanathapuramon January 5, 2011. Programmeswill also be held in all the stateunits. The celebrations will not onlyhighlight the history of theorganization, but also inspire themembers across the country to


fight for the ideals of‘Independence, Democracy andSocialism,’ which have guidedSFI in this eventful journey.

The rally witnessed acolourful and jubilant participationof a large number of students fromthe southern districts of the state.Besides Biman Basu and SitaramYechury, SFI all India president PK Biju, general secretaryRitabrata Banerjee, WestBengal state secretary KaustavChatterjee spoke in the rally. Therally was presided over by thestate president, Sayandeep Mitra.

Biman Basu in hisinaugural address said Netajinagar has been a bastion of theLeft and democratic movement inthe state. The area which was theabode of the refugees coming fromEast Bengal fought against all sorts

of authority and domination.People assembled and unitedunder the red flag fought for theirexistence and self esteem. Basumentioned that during the semifascist terror of the seventies, fortysix activists of the democraticmovement were killed only in theJadavpur- Tollygunge area underwhich Netajinagar falls. And thelegacy of those supreme sacrificesstill continues. He pointed out thattill date, activists of the student anddemocratic movement are beingkilled by forces of anarchy andreaction. After the formation of theseventh Left Front government inthe state, 515 leaders and activistsof the LF have been killed. Andout of this, 290 have been killedafter the announcement of theresults of last Lok Sabha and tillSeptember 14. He noted that the

TMC-Maoist nexus has been themastermind behind these killings.He even apprehended that somemore valuable lives may getbutchered by the TMC-Maoistmercenaries in the Junglemahal inthe time period when he isdelivering his speech.

Biman Basu told thegathering that the imperialist forceslike in other parts of the world aregathering all the anti communist,anti left forces in the state. Theyare active in fabricating false andimaginative stories in order tomislead the people. He talkedabout the glorious role of thestudents in anti imperialist strugglesand urged them to use all theirmight in resisting the antidemocratic forces of anarchy inorder to save the state. Theseanarchic forces are determined to


spread terror to all other parts ofthe state. He even mentioned theway in which outsiders, by mightare trying to capture the electedstudents unions in the state, whichtestifies beyond doubt that theTMC does not believe in anydemocratic principles. There is aconcerted effort tosnatch the hard earneddemocratic rights of thestudents in the state. Heurged the students toplay their role incombating the falseassertions andcampaigns made bythese forces and tostand firmly by thedemocratic movement.

Sitaram Yechurycategorically said that theresponsibility oftomorrow’s India is onthe students. And theyhave to realise what typeof a country is bestowedupon them as the legacyand the way in whichthey have to develop it.He said SFI has beenconsistently fighting foreducation and job for all in acountry where seventy seven outof hundred students cannot reachthe 12th standard. This is not dueto the lack of our intelligence orresources. Such conditions havebeen created due to the policiespersuaded by the ruling classes.Yechury mentioned about twoIndias within India. He said thatshining India has given birth to thelargest number of billionaires inAsia in the last ten years and one

of them had built a house byspending four thousand fivehundred crores of rupees. In thatshining India, the total wealth offifty two persons is equal to theone fourth GDP of the entirecountry. On the other handsuffering India is home to 77 per

cent of the population earning lessthan twenty rupees a day. Fifty percent of the population does notreceive adequate food. Indiastands tallest as far as deaththrough malnutrition is concerned.78 per cent of the mothers areanaemic. In such circumstances,if a new India is to be constructedthere has to be a change in theexisting conditions and hence thepolicies need to be altered.

Yechury said the central

union budget which has given a taxconcession of four lakhs tenthousand crores of rupees to thecorporate. This amount wouldhave paved the way forestablishing schools in all villagesof the country. It would haveensured hospital facilities to largest

sections of ourpopulation. But thecentre has refused totread this path. If thegovernment ignoring theinterests of the commonman considers thewelfare of the capitalistsas its priority, then thepeople will be on theroads in the fight forchange in policies.

BATTLE OF IDEAS

Yechury said thenew India which SFIspeaks of needsalternate policies and thefight for the alternativepolicies is beingspearheaded by the Left.The Left Frontgovernment is WestBengal is an example of

how the alternate policies can beimplemented. Yechurycategorically mentioned that theUS imperialism does not approveof this alternative policies and thatis precisely the reason they hadgiven directions for weakening ofthe Left in India and ousting of theLeft Front government in WestBengal. Under their instructions,the reactionary forces rangingfrom the Maoists to the TMC haveall joined hands together. He


expressed confidence that thepeople of West Bengal will give afitting rebuff to these forces in theupcoming elections. He calledupon the students to stand by theLF government and strengthen thefight for the alternatives. He saidthat the student movement is atheatre where battle of ideas areperformed and SFI from itsinception has been diligent instrengthening the battle of ideas.Yechury said that in the comingdays, the contradictions are goingto increase more and in order tostrengthen the fight for thealternatives, SFI has to play aleading role. He pointed that themeaning of Independence,Democracy and Socialism holdsa greater significance today. Heexpressed that in this fight themilitant students under the bannerof SFI will play a glorious role.

Speaking at the rally, SFIall India president and MP, P KBiju said SFI is committedtowards the interests of thecommon students and struggles inthis regard are being organised in

different parts of the country. Hementioned about thehistoric win SFI has registered inRajasthan and Himachal Pradeshstudents’ union elections recently.He said SFI will wage a militantstruggle throughout the country onthe demand of holding studentsunion elections in all states. Henoted that consistent struggles areto be continued against the antistudent education policies of thecentral government.

Addressing the rally, SFIgeneral secretary RitabrataBanerjee spoke about thedominant trends and challengesfacing the student movement in thelast four decades which hasshaped the onward march of theorganisation. Speaking about thepolicies of the central governmentin the education sector, hementioned that there is an urgentneed to expose these intentions ofthe government which are beingjustified in the name of “radicalreforms”. He urged the studentsto wage a thorough andpainstaking campaign to explain

the dangers which such policiespose to the education sector atlarge. He said that militant strugglesare to be waged to pressurise thegovernment to commit moreresources to the education sectorand stop its dilly dallying on thelong pending demands andwithdraw all plans which seek tofurther the agenda of centralisationand commercialisation ofeducation.

The rally noted that in thelast one and a half years, fiveleading comrades of SFI havebeen murdered by the reactionaryforces. Comrade A B Bijesh (Trissur district, Kerala), ComradeAbhijit Mahato, Comrade TilakTudu, Comrade Partha Biswas,Comrade Phoolchand Mahato (West Midnapore district, WestBengal) have laid down their livesfighting for the cause of thestudents and the people. The rallysaluted the comrades and vowedto strengthen the battle of ideasbecause the undying legacies ofthe martyrs have proved thatenemies can kill our comrades butthey cannot kill our ideas. The rallypointed out that the ideas of thesecomrades remain to be thedominant ideas of the majority ofthe students in our country.

The leaders expressedthat the celebrations will not onlyhighlight the history of theorganisation but also inspire themembers and newer sections ofstudents across the country to fightfor the ideals of Independence,Democracy and Socialism, whichhave guided SFI in this eventfuljourney.


Celebrations of Four decadesof SFI was kicked off in

Udupi. Flag of SFI was hoistedmarking this historical event. Acolourfull student rally through thestreets of Udupi Preceded thisevent. The two day celebrationswere inaugurated by SFI All IndiaPresident and MP P.K. Biju. in hisspeech he explained legacy and thegrowth of SFI. The journey from1970 to 2010 has been put forth infront of the gathering. SFI'smembership increased from 1,23,000 to 4,40,00,00 during thisperiod. SFI today is the biggeststudent organisation in the country.“Matured theoretical understandingbacked with relentless strugglesright from the formative years isthe sole reason of this growth” hestressed.

Further telling about thestruggles lead by SFI he said“Separatist movements createdchaos across the country in 1980s.Many of our comrades becamemartyrs the struggle against thesesuccession movements. Butnobody could ditter us from ourdetermination in safegaurding theunity and diversity of the country,SFI gave the slogan 'We will let ourbodies cut in to pieces but we willnot allow our country to be divided

in to pieces'. We continue to runthe struggles with the same spiritagainst Imperialism,Communalism, terrorism andNaxals.” He cautioned the studentsexplaining the dangerous phase thecountry is going through underUPA govt”The present govtspriority now is more that oncorruption than on education. Theyhave opened doors to ForeignUniversities and Institutions inIndia which is a great challenge toself reliance to our country. Hegave a call for widespread struggleagainst commercialisation,privatisation, communalisation andeducation policies of UPA Govt. Speaking on the occasionSFI former leader and Ex. MLACom. G.V.Srirama Reddyhighlighted the important rolestudent community played inFreedom Struggle against BritishImperialism. He said the same islagging in today’s generation. Theyare even ignorant of there ownproblems and what is causing to it.SFI has very important role to play.Both the central and state Govt aredrowned in corruption. They arenot bothered about issues engulfingpeople. He gave a call to studentcommunity to struggle againstcorruption along with there own

issues. Progressive writer PakeerMohammed Katpadi, SFI Statesecretary Ananth Naik and SFIstate secretariet members presidedover the function. SFI Statepresident H.R. Naveen Kumarchaired the function.

On January 8th, In theevening a special programme wasorganised. former state secretariesof SFI Com. S.Y.Gurushanth,Com. R.Ramakrishna shared theirexperiences of their assosciationwith delegates. These were veryinspiring movements for every onepresent. Different culturalprogrammes were performed byDelegates and cultural teams. on9th January SFI All India generalsecretary talked on History ofIndian student movement andchallenges before the students. 250delegates representing 19 districtsparticipated in this two dayscelebrations.

Commemorating 150th birthanniversary of RabindranathTagore a tele-film was screened tothe delegates. The two days eventfilled in delegates with newinspiration and energy to leadstruggles ahead in defence ofIndependence, Democracy,Socialism and Secularism.

Celebration of Four decades of study,struggle and sacrifice

KARNATAKA Hulli Umesh


Students Federation of Indiahas a lot of popularity among

the students in India, and thissuccess is the result of the path laidby many people throughenumerable struggles andsacrifices. SFI is marching aheadin memories of the sacrifices ofmartyrs, who laid down their livesfor the movement. These fourdecades of SFI celebrations helpto inspire the present cadre towork earnestly for the organizationthrough the reminiscences of thesacrifices and experiences of themartyrs. Through out AndhraPradesh, in 248 centre’s a numberof meetings, conferences, talks,and seminars were organized and36,105 students participated.

The inaugural function of 40years celebrations of SFI was heldin month of October in SundarayaVignyana Kendram, Hyderabad.Comrade Y. Vekateshwara Rao,Ex All India President (SFI), ExState secretaries B.Venkat, J.

Andhrapradesh

Lal Salaam to Comrades who sacrificed their lives for theblossoming and growth of new hope.

40 Years Celebrations of SFI

Venkatesh inaugurated thefunction and released the Posteron this occasion. Speaking ofSFI, Com Y. Vekateshwara Raosaid, SFI is in top most place as itworks for the ideology it believesin and the n number of struggles itcarries to address the issues of thestudents.

The felicitation of Ex district’spresidents was held at Gunturdistrict in which Com P.K. Biju(M.P) All India President SFI, Mr.Laxman Rao MLC, CPI (M)District Secretary Ramadeviparticipated. A Public meeting washeld at Miryalaguda, NalgondaDistrict and it was attended byCom P.K. Biju. While addressingthe gathering Com P.K. Bijupointed out that the centralgovernment is cutting down theallocation of funds for educationand on the other it is drowned incharges of corruption. In the 2Gspectrum case 1.76 lakh crores ofpublic exchequer was looted bythe telecom minister Raja whichis higher than 3% spent on

education and 6% percent spenton health of the budget. Whenasked prime minister ManmohanSingh says “I do not knowanything about it, what I only knowis Sonia Gandhi and RahulGandhi”. The governmentpursuing the tenets of the neoliberal agenda is commercializingthe education, inviting the foreignuniversities and laying down redcarpet to the U.S imperialism. Asa result the capitalists are amassingthe wealth at cost of the commonman.

As part of 4 decadecelebrations a half day session washeld during public meeting inKhammam district. To which firstpresident and secretary of thedistrict attended and gave aninspiring speech. The All Indiageneral secretary Com RitabratoBanerjee was the chief guest forthis meeting and in his speech saidSFI was formed with 1 lakhmembership, and now it grew to43 lakh members throughoutIndia. It is the largest student* Secretary, SFI - A.P.

K. Chandra Mohan


organization in the country and ithas been fighting against thecommercialization, centralizationand communalization of educationsince its inception. The valuablecadre of SFI sacrificed their livesfor upholding the aims ofIndependence, democracy andsocialism. And as the studentsbelieved in the work and ideologyof SFI it triumphed with thumpingmajority in the students unionelections throughout India. Forexample in the recent studentunion elections held in Rajasthan,SFI gave a tough fight to the NSUIis the affiliated student wing of theruling party. In Himachal Pradesh,Shimla University though the Vice-Chancellor and ruling party BJPtogether tried their best to stab thevictory of SFI by putting the cadreand leaders of SFI behind the bars,but SFI won with huge majoritysweeping all the posts.

In Bengal Maoists, andTrinamool congress ganged up andheinously killed the cadre of SFI(Abhijit Mahato, Tilak Tudu,Partha Biswas, Fulchand Mahatoand swapan Koley). Taking thesacrifices of these comrades asinspiration we have to follow theirfootsteps and fight until we reachour goals. They can only kill theindividuals but not the ideology.Com Ritabrato Banerjee ended hisspeech inspiring the cadre to workwith rejuvenated spirits.

For the programme held inKurnool district Ex MLA Gafoorparticipated and was nostalgic ofthe days he worked in SFI.

In the public gathering heldin Jawahar Bharati College,

Kavali, Nellore district, Com B.V.Raghavulu CPI (M) Politburomember, and State Secretary A.P,Com Punyavathi centralcommittee member A.P, and ExSFI leaders attended anddelivered speech. Com Raghavuluaddressing the gathering said SFIcadres excel in studies and areappreciated for their endeavors,he remembered his days inJawahar Bharati College. Andothers too gave enrichingspeeches.

On the occasion of 40 yearscelebrations of SFI, cricketcompetition was held in Tirupati.35 teams from various engineeringcolleges took part. Com B.V.Ragahvulu started the tournament.In the public meeting held in themonth of February ChukkaRamaiah MLC, appreciated thestruggles of SFI towardssafeguarding the interests of publiceducation. Ex SFI leaderNagaraju, CPI (M) districtsecretary Kumar Reddy alsoattended the pubic meeting.

For the meeting held inVishakapatnam Com. Punyavathi,Comrades C.H. Narasingha Rao,Lokanadam, Ganga Rao attendedand delivered speeches. Theyremembered how SFI workedunderground during the days ofemergency and atrocities werecarried out on SFI cadres by thepolice. And explained how thecadre stood firm against thesuppression by the police. SFIsupported the trade unionmovements and fought hard tostrengthen them. While addressing

the gathering Com. Punyavathi saidwoman cadres should beencouraged to take part activelybreaking the irrational barriers laidby the society. Remembering herdays in SFI as an activist, shetalked about less participation ofgirls and how she used to visithostels in order to encourage newgirls to become a part of SFI.They organized study circlesinternally in order to inspire themand those study circles were veryeducative. And she also gave a callto younger generation to knowabout the local issues and opposethe neo-liberal governmentpolicies towards education.

The district committee ofRanga Reddy district organized apublic meeting in Ibhrahimpatnamwith 3000 thousand students. K.Nageshwara Rao MLC (Hyd)addressed the gathering and spokeon Changes and Challenges inHigher education.

In various other places SFIhas organized General bodymeetings, meetings, collegegeneral body meetings, and publicgatherings. During those meetingsmartyrs and their sacrifices werecommemorated. The SFI statecommittee campaigned for these40 years celebrations by bringingout 15,000 posters. And thisoccasion of SFI’s 40 yearscelebrations helped a lot ineducating the cadre, andcommemorating valuablesacrifices of martyrs andinspiration to move forward withmuch vigor and rejuvenated spiritsfor the struggles ahead.


OPENING with a hugestudent procession and an

impressive public meeting, the22nd state conference of theTamilnadu unit of Students’Federation of India (SFI) resolvedto take forward its resolute fightagainst the aggressivecommercialisation of education inthe state. The three-dayconference took place atNagarcoil, headquarters ofKanniyakumari district, on August13-15. The district is a strongholdof the SFI.

On August 13 evening,nearly 5000 boys and girls,holding aloft the white flag of theSFI and chanting slogans, cameout in an inspiring procession

through the town. The processionculminated in a public meetingwhich the education minister ofKerala and former SFI leader, MA Baby, CITU state generalsecretary A Soundararajan, SFIpresident P K Biju, joint secretaryG Selva and other state leadersaddressed.

Earlier, Kanakaraj receivedthe SFI flag which had beenbrought from the V K Purammemorial of martyr ComradeKumar. Central executivecommittee member JasmineVinoja hoisted the flag. G Selvareceived the torch which had beenbrought from the memorial ofmartyrs Somu and Sembu inMadurai.

FUNDAMENTALCHANGES NEEDED

On August 14, the delegatessession of the conference startedwith an inaugural address byProfessor V K Ramachandran,member of the Planning Board ofWest Bengal. He criticised thewrong policies of the country’srulers who have given the nation ahigh rate of illiteracy even after 63years of independence. He quotedthe comments of veterancommunist leader Comrade PSundarayya that “if there is nofundamental change in society, wewill not able to provide minimum10 years education for childreneven after 50 years.” Accordingto the National Family Health

Tamilnadu

Tamilnadu SFI Conference Calls forMilitant Struggles

S P Rajendran


Survey 2005, the median numberof schooling years for men in ruralIndia was only 2; for women, itwas only 0; for Dalits also, it was0. If the words of ComradeSundarayya have come true, it isbecause there were nofundamental changes in thesociety, Professor V KRamachandran added. Heappealed the student communityto take part in the struggle forsocial change and said, “If you arepart of the struggle for socialchange, it means you areparticipating in the struggle againstclass oppression; casteoppression and genderoppression.” He also told thestudents that only the Leftmovement in India is waging atireless fight against class, caste,gender and other forms ofoppression.

The conference discussed thework report and organisationalreport placed by K Kanagaraj,state secretary of the SFI, whichdetailed the continuous strugglesby the organisation in the state,

particularly for the cause ofcommon school education, foreducational loans and scholarshipfor the poor students, and otherpro-education causes. It wasevident that it was only due to thepowerful struggle of SFI that theDMK government has begun theimplementation of common schooleducation programme from thisyear. For this cause, one may note,SFI cadres faced cruel attacks ofthe police and the government triedto crush their movement withbrutality.

Discussing the organisation’sstrengths in Tamilnadu, theconference noted that it has1,56,917 members in the state,among whom 1,06,351 are schoolstudents. However, the delegatesalso analysed the weaknesses andcharted out measures to furtherstrengthen the organisation.

The conference decided tohold massive demonstrations allover the state on September 1 topress its demands, including thatof proper implementation of thecommon school educationprogramme.

A five-member committeeheaded by state SFI president NRejees Kumar presided over theconference. Reception committeechairman and former MP, A VBellarmine, welcomed thedelegates and others while DYFIstate secretary S Kannan, AISFstate secretary Venkatraman andthe leaders of teachers' movementgreeted the conference. All Indiajoint secretary G Selva addressedthe valedictory session. D Samrajproposed the vote of thanks.


The conference elected a 78member state committee, with KS Kanakaraj as president and JRajmohan as secretary. R Stalin,Karikalan, Uchi Makali,Dhanushan and Jasmine Vinojawere elected vice presidents andKumar, Samraj, Mariappan,Balachanra Bose and Josbin Vijiare the joint secretaries.

TWIN ATTACKSAs a part of the conference,

a special convention was held onAugust 15. SFI general secretaryRitabrata Banerjee and formerMUTA president Professor VPonraj delivered specialaddresses at the convention.

In his address, RitabrataBanerjee warned that the UPA II,which does not even have aCommon Minimum Programme,has launched a renewed offensivein the field of education. Thisinvolves the twin attacks ofcommercialisation andcentralisation of education. TheUPA government not only seeks

to push for increasedcommercialisation and opening upof the education sector to foreignplayers; it also aims atfundamentally changing thestructure of education sector inthe country. To put it in simpleterms, the thrust is onfundamentally curbing thedemocratic values in the realm ofeducation policy and make itsubservient to the whims andfancies of the market bosses, headded.

After the UPA II assumedoffice in May 2009, the ministerfor human resource developmenthas declared the aggressive neo-liberal agenda of his ministry,arousing strong protests from thestakeholders and various stategovernments. Several legislationshave been introduced inparliament, including the ForeignEducational Institutions Bill whichseeks to invite FDI in education.The Right to Education Act hasbeen passed without committingadditional funds to the stategovernments. Some other

legislations are in the offing. TheUPA government's agenda foreducation sector in going to leadto a) deregulation andcentralisation of education b)taking policy issues outside thepurview of the parliament/legislature and electedrepresentatives and c)privatisation andcommercialisation of education.All this will have far reachingconsequences, the speakerpointed out.

The most dangerous step inthis direction is the proposedNCHER and HER draft billswhich have been brought by thegovernment. The defining featureof these bills are that they wouldtake away all rights of policy anddecision making in education fromdemocratically elected bodies likethe parliament and statelegislatures, and give sweepingpowers to a seven member body.Such steps can also be seen in thefield of school education whereattempts are being made to


undermine the autonomy of stateboards by talks of uniform syllabiand curricula. All this is being donein the name of "reforming andrejuvenating" the education sectorin the country and is beingpresented as a drastic reform ofthe otherwise inefficient educationsystem prevailing in the country.While the government is notshowing any inclination to increasethe resource allocation for theeducation sector, it wants toacquire all powers to implementits own all-size-fit policies. This isyet another replication of the neo-liberal paradigm which tries toseek legitimacy for mostundemocratic and regressiveproposals in the name of reformingthe delivery mechanism. Banerjeeput forward the view that the goalsof expansion, equity andexcellence in education at all levelsare mutually complementary andshould be harmoniously pursuedthrough greater public investmentand public control over education.He demanded that adequateprovision should be made by thecentral government for time bound

implementation of total literacyand continuing educationprogrammes. Expenditure oneducation must be raised to atleast six per cent of the GDP.Quantum of the central financialsupport to the states should beenhanced substantially.

LACK OFACCOUNTABILITY

Banerjee pointed out that ina country like ours which ismarked by large diversities,education cannot bestraitjacketed. We require aparticipatory, democratic attitudeto improve the sorry state ofaffairs which prevail today. It isabsurd to think that some"enlightened" individuals sitting inDelhi can decide what policiesshould be adopted to address theproblems of providing qualityeducation to students in a remotevillage in the North East or in abig city slum. It is also meaninglessto argue that a clique of someindividuals, with no accountabilityto the common people, would getrid of the problems which are

facing our education system today.It is important to understand

that the driving motive behind thesemeasures is not an expansion ofthe system. The primary motive isto cater to the needs of the marketand undermine the progressivecontent of education in thecountry. To take an example, theHRD minister recently gave astatement stressing the need forhaving identical syllabi for scienceand commerce streams at thehigher secondary level across allstates. But one might ask: why isthere no felt need to includehumanities or social sciences aswell? The answer is clear. Scienceand commerce streams have adirect relation to the needs of themarket today. The ruling elite inour country needs supply ofskilled labour force to compete inthe world market. That is not thecase with social sciences or liberalarts, which in fact pose a challengeto the imperialist thinktanks whichwould want to reinterpret ourhistory in a particular manner.

There is thus an urgent needto understand the threat thesepolicies pose to our society. Thespeaker therefore appealed to thestudent community to wagemilitant struggles and press thegovernment to commit moreresources to the education sectorand withdraw all plans to furtherthe agenda of its centralisation andcommercialisation.

At the convention, RitabrataBanerjee inaugurated a newwebsite of the Tamilnadu SFI,www.sfitamilnadu.org.

Documents

Student Struggle