contents

STUDENT STRUGGLE
Vol. 40 Issue No. 2
February 2011
English Monthly

Editor
V. Sivadasan

Asst. Editor
Roshan Kishore

Editorial Board
P.K. Biju, Ritabrata Banerjee,
V.S. Nidhin, Subhash Chandran,
Dhrubojyoti Chakraborty

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Awanish Kumar................................................................. 7
Printed and Published by
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Celebration of Four decades of study, struggle and sacrifice

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40 Years Celebrations of SFI

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Tamilnadu SFI Conference Calls for Militant Struggles

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 A massive wave of anti-authoritarian uprisings,
unprecedented in the modern Arab history, has
taken the world and especially the North African and
Arab regions by storm. The flare up in Tunisia, have
been followed by widespread protests of varying
degrees and scale , in Egypt, Yemen, Morocco,
Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan and Bahrain.
The undemocratic regimes which had set up their
autarchies, stifling democratic voices for decades,
came under the artillery fire of popular protests,
venting out their anger and frustration. The protests
were marked by the presence of a wide spectrum of
the population, coming from all strata of the society.
The immediate reasons which prompted the protests
were unemployment, inflation with rising food prices
and rampant corruption.
The protests had their beginning in Tunisia after
the self immolation of an unemployed youth harassed
by the police. The news was reported by Al Jazeera,
though ignored by the national media. Despite the best
attempts of an over confident President Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali to curb the protests by censorship and other
EDITORIAL
draconian measures, the people actively assisted by
the working class organisations like the Tunisian
General Labour Association, were able to sustain their
protests which spread soon over other parts of the
country. As the struggle intensified and got closer to
the centres of power, students, teachers and
unemployed took their part in large numbers. The final
showdown came after the declaration of a general
strike by the trade unions and the President flew the
country in stealth. Thus the three decade long autarchy
of the favourite strong man of West in Tunisia had
come to an end.
The events in Tunisia were an indication of what
was in the offing for the rest of the Arab world. Egypt
erupted into protests with massive popular
demonstrations where people joined in millions. The
Tahrir square witnessed millions of pro-democracy
protesters occupying it and the authoritarian ruler
Hosni Mubarak had to surrender to the public anger
and step down from power but only before trying to
retain his seat of power through an iron fist. The Al
Jazeera which reported the news of the pro-
democracy protests was banned and Mubarak got the
tacit support of the USA who wanted his henchman
Student Struggle 2 February 2011
to continue on his chair. Thousands of armed
hooligans were employed to recapture the space at
Tahrir square, but the determination of the people to
do away with despotism was insurmountable and
Mubarak had to go as army took over the
administration.
Libya was the next in line to have its streets
flooded with anti authoritarian protesters. Colonel
Quaddafi, who came up as a champion of
nationalization 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 on
the throne by developing a militia loyal to him while
keeping the armed forces rather weak. The Libyan
uprisings have acquired the nature of a civil war and
there have been attempts by the imperialists to play
out their strategies. It is the duty of the world to
assist the Libyan people in their struggle for
democracy and any attempt by the imperialists to
advance their hegemony should be vigilantly resisted.
It is the fervent hope of the progressive
sections that these revolts will help in advancing the
agenda of democratization of the Arab societies and
to recover the ‘Arab past which once subscribed to
the values of French discourse of the Rights of Man
and the Marxist vision of a classless society’.
It is yet hard to predict the developments in
the region. Whether take over by the army would
subsequently lead to democracy or military
despotism is a million dollar question. The
progressive and democratic sections worldwide are
waiting with crossed fingers about the future of these
revolts. There is a tangible danger of military or
imperialist take over which can be avoided only
through heightened vigil by the democratic forces.
But whatever be the outcome, these struggles
have once again proved the urge of the people of
West Asia and Northern Africa to have accountable
and democratic regimes. It has broken the stereotypes
produced in the so called global media about such
regions.
It is the duty of the Indian student community
to recognise the historic nature of these revolts and
stand by the struggling people and to ensure the
support of the people of India for the advancement
of their historic fight.
 Prabir Purkayastha
New Winds in the Arab World
T unisia and Egypt has shown
clearly that the Arab world is
entering a completely different
phase of politics. The old world of
authoritarian rulers – from
dictators of various stripes to
medieval monarchies – all of them
are now threatened. A Gaddafi in
Libya or a Khalifa in Bahrain may
hold out for some time more, but
the clock for this order of West
Asian and North African leaders
is rapidly running out. This of course
does not mean the immediate
transformation of these states. The
leaders may change, the regime is
going to be much more difficult to
dislodge. Some immediate battles
may have been won, but a victory
in the war to change these societies
still remains.
Student Struggle
How do we look at the
changes taking place? There is
little doubt that the pace at which
these changes have taken place
have confounded everybody.
When the fist demonstrations
against Ben Ali took place, experts
smiled and proclaimed that nothing
was going to change in Tunisia.
Ben Ali was a wily fox and would
manage the street revolts easily.
Once he was deposed after two
weeks of street protests, the
knowledgeable exclaimed that
Egypt was different. The security
state built by Mubarak was too
powerful, the Egyptian state was
far more sophisticated, the western
powers and Israel would not like
Mubarak, their firm ally to go and
therefore Mubarak would not
3 February 2011
follow Ben Ali into exile. It is true
he has not gone into exile; he is
now holed up in the resort town of
Sharam el Shaikh. The rest
however has followed the Tunisia
script.
Mubarak’s did not really leave
his Presidency willingly – he had
to be virtually dragged out kicking
and screaming. There is little doubt
that with mass strikes in most of
Egypt and the pressure of people
on the streets again building up, the
Army finally told Mubarak enough
is enough and he had to go.
The West, particularly the US
was really not happy about this turn
of events. However, saving the
regime was important to them,
Mubarak expendable. Faced with
mass protests on a scale that has
not been seen for the last 40 years
in the Arab world, retaining at least
the core institution of the regime –
the Military – guided the US
actions. The key for them is how
to manage the transition now
without giving up the geo-strategic
dominance that the US has in the
Middle East. If Egyptian revolution
links itself to Arab nationalism and
gives a call for an independent
foreign and economic policy, the
US interests would be deeply
threatened. As would also be the
security of Israel, which has
banked on Egypt being a tacit ally
of Israel.
The movement for
democracy has spread to Yemen,
Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain and now
Libya. While Libya is very much
in the news, Bahrain is far more
valuable in security terms to the US
– it houses US’s Fifth Fleet and the
lynch-pin of their Central
Command.
Whether these nascent
revolutions will be able to create a
new order that will bring some
measure of democracy and equity
into their societies is an open
question. Obviously, while some of
the dictators have left, the regime
that they built still remains. Egypt
will be the key player here as it has
always been the centre of the Arab
world – both culturally and
intellectually.
What are the forces that are
sweeping the region and what do
they represent? This is the question
of all of us have to ask, with no
clear answers at the moment. It is
possible for the old order to re-
establish itself with some cosmetic
changes. It is possible also that far
reaching changes will follow.
Student Struggle
Above all, the stagnation of politics
in the Arab world, in which people
and their views did not matter, has
now broken. The normal political
processes – of parties, trade unions,
student and women’s
organisations, protests and debates
– can renew after a long hiatus. In
this sense, Arab world has come
back to Nasser’s times when the
old order changed brining in new
political players. It is a renewal of
Arab nationalism albeit in a very
different form.
The course of Arab
nationalism had run out of steam
by the end of 60’s. What remained
in place were either monarchs —
strongly backed by the imperial
powers — or nationalist strong
men, with close military links. By
the end of the 80’s and fall of the
Soviet Union, almost all the Arab
states became — to a more or less
degree — vassals of the sole
imperial power, the US.
The central weakness of the
Nasserite legacy is that while it did
rid their countries of the then
prevailing corrupt and quasi colonial
order, it looked upon the militarised
state as the primary instrument of
building a modern nation. The
people were there to applaud and
to participate, but only passively.
The Nasserite movements that
came to power had legitimacy and
support of the people as it did
transform these countries from
colonies to independent nations.
However, if the leaders betrayed
the Nasserite legacy, as did Anwar
Sadat, there was very little that the
people could do.
In many ways, the earlier
Tunisian and the later Egyptian
uprising is a continuation of the
4 February 2011
nationalist movements that had
characterised the earlier de-
colonisation struggles. That time
too, the countries were either
formally colonies or effectively
colonies. Today also, the Arab
people see their rulers as
surrogates of the West. Hosni
Mubarak and Ben Ali represent
rulers who were propped by
Washington to its bidding and do
not represent their people. Almost
unanimously, the Egyptian
protesters reiterated that they were
once again proud of being
Egyptians. The resonance to an
Egyptian nationalism, which had
laid dormant for so many years,
was resurfacing again.
For many, Libya came as a
surprise. Gaddafi still retains some
aura of an anti-imperialist and an
Arab socialist. What is not realised
is that Gaddafi switched from a
Arab socialist to a neo-liberal
agenda much earlier. Post 9-11 and
Iraq’s invasion, he has not only
aligned with the US he has also
been a devout votary of War
against terror. It is this exhaustion
of the earlier anti-imperialist legacy
coupled with blatant accumulation
of wealth by his family and cronies
that turned the people against him.
Being an autocrat and a completely
mercurial one at that does not help
matters, particularly if the only right
people had in his “direct”
democracy was to listen to him.
The fact that the West hates
Gaddafi is beside the point. He has
been its bugbear for long decades
and even if he has made up to them
now, memories linger. Any change
in Libya can be dressed up as the
West helping democracy in the
Arab world. This may also help in
distracting attention from their long
history of shoring up medieval
autocracies and dictatorial regimes
in the Arab world.
Egypt of course occupies a
pivotal role in the Arab world. It is
by far the biggest country in the
Middle East with 85 million people.
It is also the strongest military
power in the region after Israel.
Israel has not forgotten that the
Egyptian Army recovered after the
disastrous 1967 War and was able
to inflict heavy losses initially in the
1973 War. Israel’s sense of
invincibility was shaken when
Egyptians crossed what Israel
thought was an impregnable Bar
Yev line along the Suez Canal. This
was what prompted Israel and the
US to try and reach an agreement
with Egypt, handing back Sinai and
effectively taking Egypt out of the
equation. It is this equation
established in Camp David by
Israel, Egypt and the US in 1978,
which is now threatened by the
Egyptian revolt.
Who are the actors in this
revolt? If you listen to the western
media, it is a leaderless revolt with
Muslim Brotherhood waiting in the
wings to take over the movement.
The spectre of Khomieni and Iran
is raised time again as a possible
future for Egypt and therefore —
as Tony Blair put it — “how to
manage the transition” — a change
of face but not a change of regime.
This is what the mass of Egyptian
people are rejecting — they want
meaningful change of regime and
they want it now.
The movement for change
include new actors who started the
whole movement, a set of older
political parties including the
Student Struggle
Muslim Brotherhood and El
Bareidi, the former chief of
International Atomic Energy
Agency.
Who were the actors who
started the protests? The two
major youth groups were the
“Kolona Khaled Saeed” (We are
all Khaled Saeed) and the 6th April
Youth Movement. Each of them
had built a large following using
Facebook and Twitter. In addition,
the 6th April Youth Movement were
also closely connected to trade
union activists, particularly in the
state run textile factories in
Mahalla, located just to the north
of Cairo. The core activists met a
number of times to work out the
entire plan – how the protests
would be organised, how the groups
would be formed and how only a
few would know the actual routes
and destinations. This is how the
Day of Rage – 25th January —
was organised and sustained in
Tahrir square and other parts of
Egypt over the next 18 days. Once
the program of protests was
announced, cutting Internet and
mobile networks did not matter.
Everybody knew the essential
details — dates, routes and where
they had to protest.
It is true that the older political
formations including Muslim
Brotherhood were also very much
a part of the movement. But the
scale of the action makes clear that
it is neither lead nor created by
them — it is mass action supported
by all sections of society in Egypt.
The key issue that West raised
in Egypt is the future role of the
Muslim Brotherhood. What they
forget is that the world sees their
opposition to Islamic
5 February 2011
fundamentalism as completely
hypocritical. It is welcome as long
as it is Saudi Arabia and a host of
Emirs and kings supporting the
West. Then women’s rights,
democracy and all other issues
disappear. It is only when western
interests are threatened that
Islamic forces become unaccep-
table. It is also not forgotten in the
world that the ex-colonial powers
and the US are quite happy to align
with Islamic fundamentalism in the
50’s, 60’s and 70’s in the Arab
world — not only against the left
but also against the Arab
nationalists. Not only Cold War
dynamics but also the decolonising
process was the reason why the
US sided with Islamic
fundamentalists against secular and
nationalist forces. Oil and the Suez
Canal are what drove US policy in
the Arab world then and what drives
it now.
The issue of Palestine and
Israel is also of course behind the
reactions in the West. Egypt was
a managed state and a willing
partner in the barricading of Gaza.
After Mubarak, it will be very
difficult for any new Government
not to listen to peoples voice on
Palestine. And any body who has
visited Egypt knows peoples’
sentiments run very deep on the
issue of Palestine.
It is important to understand
the nature of the Security
Apparatus that Mubarak had built
up and why protests were so
difficult in Egypt. Egypt has one of
the highest police to population
ratios in the world – 1.2 million
police. In addition, it has a 350,000
strong Central Security Force,
whose primary task is to break up
strikes and protests. However,
after battling the protesters for one
week, this force simply collapsed,
paving the way for eventual
departure of Mubarak.
The role of the military has
been crucial in both Tunisia and
Egypt. From the beginning, they did
not fire of the protesters, keeping
themselves out of the conflict
between protesters and the
Government. There are many
reasons for this – the respect the
military forces enjoyed, the belief
that they were the only institution
of the state that could provide
continuity if the other institutions
collapsed, their own unhappiness
at being frozen out of the major loot
taking place under Ben Ali and
Mubarak. However, while the
“neutrality” of the armed forces
was critical for the success of the
Tunisian and Egyptian uprising,
they also contain the long term of
threat of only exchanging one set
of autocrats with another.
In Libya, the situation did not
play out similarly as the military
effectively split, with one section
supporting the forces fighting
Gaddafi and the other supporting
him. Libya has two population
centres – one on the eastern side
around Bengazi and the other
around Tripoli with a large desert
in between. Both have oil fields
near them and therefore can
economically sustain themselves.
The eastern part – the Bengazi
area – has always been the centre
of dissent against Gaddafi. In
Bengazi this time, major sections
of the people and the local
Governmental apparatus have
gone over to those oppose Gaddafi
including some important regime
Student Struggle
figures. Out of the 4 major tribes In Lebanon, the pro-western Saad
that constitute Libya, Gaddafi Hariri Government has been
seems to have lost support of 3. replaced by a Government in which
While he may yet survive based Hezbollah is playing a more
on some sections of the military important role. All in all, the
being loyal to him, his rule in Libya regional balance has swung away
is effectively over – at best he can from them. Israel is now far more
only inflict a civil war on Libya. isolated than it was a few months
In Bahrain, Yemen and in back.
Jordan, the protests against the It is important to recognise
regimes are continuing though not that Tunisia was the start of a new
with the intensity we saw in Tunisia process in Middle East and the
and Egypt. The key issue in all Arab world. It is not going to stop
these revolts is the role of the with Egypt, but Egypt is the key
armed forces. If they can be player in this region. With changes
neutralised as they were in Tunisia in Egypt, it will irrevocably change
and Egypt, the old regimes would the Middle East equation. For
have to change. If the armed Israel, the US and the West, this is
forces continue to support their not happy tidings. For the rest of
establishments, it will see much the world, there is joy and solidarity.
more protracted and bloody Yes, the course of Egypt’s
struggles. revolution is not clear. But any
In Bahrain, the US and Saudi change from the current regime
Arabia has a much bigger stake. It can only be for the better. This is
not only is the headquarters of the what people in Egypt are asserting:
US Fifth fleet, it can immediately an Egypt in which peoples’ voice
tilt the regional balance in favour does matter. And this is what is
of Iran. A part of the battle for resonating in the Arab world
democracy in Bahrain is giving the
majority population who are Shias
some share in power. The Sunnis
dominate over all Governmental
institutions in Bahrain. Saudi
Arabia’s fear is that this will
immediately increase Iran’s
influence in the region and also
lead to Shias in Saudi and other
Gulf states becoming more
assertive. This may be the first
breach in the monarchies in this
region, over whom Saudi’s have
managed to dominate.
If we look at the overall
picture, Libya not withstanding, the
West and its surrogate – the Saudis
have suffered serious reverses.
They have lost Egypt and Tunisia.
6 February 2011

SFI-DYFI Salute Arab People-
From a Solidarity Meeting in Mumbai
T he Student Federation of India
(SFI) and Democratic Youth
Federation of India (DYFI)
Mumbai Committees organized a
solidarity meeting in support of
democratic uprisings across the
North African and West Asian
region. The event was held on 2nd
March 2011 in Dadar, Mumbai.
Many students from colleges
across Mumbai, progressive
citizens associated with SFI-DYFI
and other groups attended the
meeting. The meeting began with
Comrade Preethy Sekhar (DYFI)
putting the context for the meeting.
She said that the meeting is a step
to understand the significance of
Arab struggles for democracy and
demonstrating solidarity with the
toiling masses, students and youth
of those countries who are at the
forefront against tyrannies. She
said that the major source of news
about events in the Arab world is
the imperialist media which is
feeding many distorted motives to
these democratic movements, for
instance, by highlighting Shia-Sunni
differences etc. In this scenario, it
is important for all left-democratic
forces in India to try and unravel
the real historical and geo-political
significance of the turn of events
in Arab. Comrade Akash Bagul
Student Struggle
(DYFI) underlined the fact that the
regimes across Arab world
adopted pro-imperialist political
stance and neoliberal economic
policies which deprived people and
favoured only a few. He asserted
that India also has a similar regime
which is trying to suppress
democratic forces in the country.
Comrade Mahendra Singh
(Secretary, CPI(M), Mumbai)
began by pointing out that the
movement for democracy in
Tunisia was started by a modest
street-vendor which, in itself, is
inspiring. Later, however, in such
movements many kind of political
forces participate- the alignments
of which are not at once clear for
all. He also provided a larger
historical context to the happenings
in Egypt with reference to Colonel
Nasser’s role in Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM), Suez
controversy, Israel-Arab war in
1967 and the long Palestinian
struggles. He said that by the 1980s,
unfortunately, the anti-imperialism
of earlier Arab nationalist regimes
was compromised. He concluded
that while the unrest on Arab
streets is not a pure working class
struggle, it is definitely a step
forward against the murderous
dictatorial regimes. Not
7 February 2011
Awanish Kumar
surprisingly, even the Army in
many countries refused to shoot at
the expanse of democratic
movements. He emphasized
the need for the progressive
forces across the world to show
solidarity with people’s movements
in Arab.
Comrade Prabir Purkayastha
(Delhi Science Forum), who was
the main speaker at the meeting,
spoke in both Hindi and English. He
began by highlighting his long
association with Arab region,
particularly Palestinian struggle
against Israel-US. In the current
context, he said, the most important
thing to note in the series of
struggles in Arab is the fact of
large participation of the youth who
are fighting, struggling and laying
down their lives for democracy.
This is an inspiring feature of the
mass-democratic movements in
Arab. He further pointed out that
the Indian media is almost
completely dependent on
international sources with the
exception of The Hindu which is
the only media group to have a
correspondent in West Asia.
Hence, the information about the
world in the country is filtered
through the western lens.

Reiteration of the UPA’s Pro-Rich and
Anti-People Policies
T he Union Budget for 2011-12
has once again failed to meet
the aspirations of the student
community in the country. The total
spending on education as per
budget estimates 2011-12 are only
5% of the budget as opposed to
the demand of 10% by the
student movement in the
country. The apathy of the
government towards the education
sector is clear from the fact that for
certain crucial sectors the revised
estimates for the year 2010-11 are
lower than the budget estimates.
This means that the
government did not even spend
the amount which was allocated
in the last budget. The Revised
Estimates for 2010-11 for Total
Technical Education (Rs 5793.90
crores) and Total Provision for
project/schemes for the benefit of
North Eastern Areas and Sikkim
( Rs 979 crores) are less than the
2010-11 budget estimates which
were Rs 6011.55 crores and Rs
1078 crores respectively.
The provision of Rs 21000
crores in the Sarv Shiksha
Abhiyan is also not enough for
meeting the Right to Education
requirements. The Planning
Commission had estimated this
figure to be around Rs 34600
crores per year. Another important
fact to be noted is that bulk of this
money has come from the Prathmik
Shiksha Kosh, which is financed by
the Education Cess. Once the Direct
Tax Code in brought into effect the
cess would be rolled out.
There has also been a cut
Student Struggle
back in the allocation for Rajiv
Gandhi National Fellowship for
students from deprived
backgrounds. While the
government did not spend the
total amount allocated last year
(Revised Estimates for 2010-11 Rs
144 crores compared to Budget
Estimate of Rs 159 crores), there
has been a further cut back this
year with an allocation of only Rs
123 crores. This would lead to a
more than proportionate fall in the
number of recipients given the fact
that the scholarship amount has been
increased.
The general thrust of this year’s
budget reflects the government’s
insensitivity towards the plight of the
common people in the country.
There has been no attempt to
provide any relief from price rise to
the people. In fact, the finance
minister has announced a cutback
of Rs 20000 crores in subsidies over
fuel, fertilizer and food. The move
to switch to a direct cash transfer
subsidy regime to BPL families in
Kerosene, LPG, Fertilizers and most
probably Food is a sure shot recipe
for excluding millions of people
from the subsidy net and further add
to their miseries.
There is also a drastic fall
in the revised estimates for 2010-11
in social welfare expenditure. The
total welfare expenditure for
handicapped people and
expenditure for social welfare
show Revised Estimates for only
Rs 326 crores and Rs 91.35 crores
against budget estimates of Rs
398 and 201.6 crores. There has
8 February 2011
UNION BUDGET
also been a cut back in the
allocation for Multi Sectoral
Development Programme for
minorities in selected minority
concentration districts from Rs
1245 crores (2010-11 Budget
Estimates) to Rs 1077.60 crores.
This shows the callous nature of the
government towards seriously
implementing the recommendations
of the Sachar and Rangnath Mishra
Reports for upliftment of minorities,
particularly Muslims.
The budget also seeks to push
the country on the neo-liberal path
by calling for liberalisation of the
financial sector, especially in banking
and insurance. It is clear that neo-
liberal dogma has prevailed over the
lessons which should have been
learnt from the global economic
crisis.
There are no noteworthy
measures to crack down on the
black money which has been
stashed inside and outside the
country. Neither is there any move
to increase resource mobilisation as
well. Switch to the Direct Tax Code
is sure to bring down tax receipts,
in the context of an already falling
tax-GDP ratio. The tax exemptions
to corporate houses have increased
to a whopping Rs 88263 crore this
year.
Overall, the budget is a
reiteration of the UPA’s pro-rich and
anti-people policies which are bound
to take our country on a destructive
neo-liberal trajectory. The SFI
appeals to the students to oppose
such measures and mobilise opinion
against this anti-people regime.
 PROGRESS REPORT OF LDF GOVERNMENT IN KERALA

EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE IN

HIGHER EDUCATION

T he ruling Left Democratic

Front (LDF) Government in
Kerala is completing five years in
office within a few months. The
performance of the Government is
being evaluated at different levels
in the context of the impeding
elections. The programmes
implemented by the Government in
the education sector have come in
for special scrutiny. This is not at
all surprising. First, the tradition of
entrusting the portfolio of education
with junior coalition partners had
been broken this time. CPI (M), the
leading partner in the Government
had itself taken over the
responsibility, signalling the
importance attached by the LDF
Government to education. The
close scrutiny is intended to find out
whether the expectations of the
people have been redeemed.
Secondly, the LDF Government
had attempted to implement an
alternate development agenda in
education, contrary to the agenda
of Liberalization, Privatization and
Globalization (LPG) being
implemented by the Central
Government for the past two
decades. The success/failures in
the conceptualization and
implementation of the alternate
agenda are also being critically
assessed.
An important aspect that
needs to be taken into account
Student Struggle
while assessing the performance of
the LDF Government in education
over the last five years is the
political and ideological polarization
prevailing in the State. It is true
that people by and large support the
policies and programmes of the
Left in education. At the same
time, there is also a strong lobby
which is opposed to the basic tenets
of the Left. The vested interests
that they represent enjoy strong
support from political and
communal organizations opposed to
the LDF. The approach of the
judiciary has also not always been
helpful. In fact, the criticism
against the LDF policies in
education was initiated by the
Hon’ble High Court of Kerala.
What prompted the criticism was
the enactment of a comprehensive
V.S. Achuthanandan Chief Minister, Kerala
9 February 2011
law for enforcing social control on
unaided professional educational
institutions within one month of the
Government assuming office.
While striking down several
provisions of the Act, the Hon’ble
judges were sarcastic about what
they perceived as undue haste on
the part of the Government to
implement the promises given to the
people. Despite obstructionist
interventions from the vested
interests and the judiciary, the
Government could still ensure a
modicum of social justice in the
self-financing sector. A majority
of the self-financing institutions
which were started under the
previous UDF regime with no
regulatory control could be brought
under an arrangement for seat
sharing with the Government and

socially sensitive fees structure.
The total commitment of the
Government to social justice and
its determination to ensure it helped
it to overcome successive
challenges in the self-financing
sector.
The achievements of the
LDF Government in Kerala in the
self-financing sector acquire more
sheen if pitted against the
retrograde steps being taken by the
Central Government in this sector
during the last five years. The
Common Minimum Programme
(CMP) of UPA-I had promised
that nobody would be denied
access to higher professional
education for want of financial
resources. But the promise has not
been redeemed so far. The draft
Bill prepared by MHRD in 2004
and the drat Regulations prepared
by UGC in 2007 which contained
several provisions for ensuring
social justice have now been set
aside. In their place, Kapil Sibal
has introduced the bill on
‘Prevention of Unfair Practices in
Technical and Medical Educational
Student Struggle
Institutions’ which is intended to
legalize corporatisation and
commercialization of Technical and
Medical Education. There is no
provision in the bill for a Common
Entrance Test (CET) or a Single
Window System (SWS) of
admission. There is no provision
for implementing constitutionally
mandated reservation. There is
also no legal sanction for an
inclusive fees structure. The bill
only seeks to ensure transparency
in the business of education. With
the enactment of the bill in the
Parliament, even the existing
admission and fees regulatory
committees in the State will have
to be disbanded.
The LDF Government
could recognize the
complementarities between equity
and excellence in higher education.
The reforms implemented during
the last five years reflect this
understanding. One of the
important reforms was to
rejuvenate the non-professional
Government and aided sector in
higher education. Steps were
10
taken to encourage the study of
basic disciplines by instituting a
Higher Education Scholarship
Scheme. 1000 scholarships would
be distributed annually under this
scheme for the study of basic
disciplines. Starting with first
degree education the scholarship
would be available for a period of
five years. The amount of
Scholarship would progressively
increase from Rs.12000 to
Rs.60000/- from the first year to
the fifth year. In addition to this,
4000 SuvarnaJayanthi scholarships
worth Rs.10000 would be given
annually to the students from lower
income families. There are also
5000 special scholarships for
Muslim girls. The State
Government also rigorously
implemented Central Sector
Scholarships for the Minorities.
There are also several short term
scholarships for helping meritorious
students to undertake short term
research in national level institutions
under the guidance of renowned
teachers.
Another step taken to
make the study of basic disciplines
attractive was to restructure the
undergraduate programme by
introducing Choice-based-Course-
Credit-Semester System
(CBCCSS) and Grading. Kerala is
perhaps the only State which has
faithfully implemented the UGC
vision on restructuring
undergraduate education. It was
possible to implement this complex
reform without any hassles due to
meticulous planning and
implementation under the
leadership of the State Higher
Education Council. The
implementation of the CBCCSS
February 2011
has opened up the opportunities for
quality education for all, which is a
remarkable departure from the
prevailing practice of setting up
exclusive islands of excellence.
The object of the reform is to
democratize quality in higher
education.
Kerala is the first state in
the entire country to seriously take
up the recommendations for setting
up Clusters of Colleges. All
Education Commissions in free
India, starting with Kothari
Commission, have commended the
system of clusters of colleges, with
a view to extending excellence
from the centre to the periphery by
pooling intellectual and physical
resources available among
neighboring colleges. The scheme
has now been implemented on an
experimental basis in
Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and
Kozhikode. Unfortunately a
section of the educational
entrepreneurs in the State have
refused to join the scheme. What
they want is not academic
autonomy but managerial
autonomy. They do not subscribe
to the philosophy of collaboration
and want competitive
commercialization of education.
The Government has taken a great
step forward in concretizing its
alternate agenda in education by
establishing clusters of colleges. It
is necessary to expand and enlarge
the scope of this experiment.
The Scholar-in-Residence
Programme (ERUDITE) is a novel
scheme implemented by the
Government for collaborating with
internationally renowned
universities and their faculty. The
scheme provides for extended visits
Student Struggle
by well known scholars to the
universities in the State. A number
of scholars including eight Nobel
Laureates have taken part in the
programme so far. Apart from its
inspirational value, the visits of such
scholars have also led to sustained
academic collaboration between
the universities in the State and
reputed foreign universities. The
scheme is qualitatively different
from that promoted by the Central
Government which has piloted the
‘Foreign Universities Bill’ to
facilitate the setting up of off
campus centres of foreign
universities in the country. The
Kerala was implementing its
own unique programmes in
higher education it was also
trying to make the best use of
enhanced central assistance
for higher education.
Kerala is the first state in the
entire country to seriously
take up the recommendations
for setting up Clusters of
Colleges.
M.A. Baby Education Minister, Kerala
11
Central initiative facilitates
academic re-colonization of India.
Kerala’s experiment would
promote academic regeneration
through collaborative engagements
on a global scale.
Even as Kerala was
implementing its own unique
programmes in higher education it
was also trying to make the best
use of enhanced central assistance
for higher education. A number of
new institutions including Indian
Institute of Space Science and
Technology (IIST), Indian Institute
of Science Education and
Research (IISER), a Central
University and a Centre of Aligarh
Muslim University have been set
up in the State during the last five
years with central assistance. In
addition to these, new colleges and
courses were started in
Government, Aided and Unaided
sectors. The 12 year ban on
appointment of teachers was lifted
by the Government. More than
2500 teachers were appointed in
colleges and universities during the
last five years. Of this 1700 were
appointed to new posts created
during the period.
The efforts of the
Government to improve the quality
of education in the technical
education sector have borne fruits.
Smart classes with internet
connectivity have been set up in all
Government Engineering Colleges.
Regular training programmes are
instituted for teachers. A Centre
for Research in Engineering has
been started. For content
development, schemes such as K-
base, The Scholar, and
Gurusmarana etc are being
implemented. Quality improvement
February 2011
programme was implemented in
Polytechnics. Seventeen Finishing
Schools were also set up to
improve the employability of the
Polytechnic pass outs.
What is given above is not
a comprehensive picture of the
reforms undertaken in higher
education during the last five years.
It is only a sample of the reforms.
The most important fallout of these
reforms is that a workable,
alternate policy frame work has
been evolved in higher education.
The roadmap for a better future
has been laid. It is necessary to
ensure the continuance of the
reforms without any break. The
third International Congress on
Kerala Studies held from 1 st
January to 3rd January has drawn
up a comprehensive scheme for
equitable development of the State
through the next decade. The
important proposals on higher
education that emerged through the
conference organized by CPI (M)
are the following:
l Take steps to preserve and
strengthen the federal
structure of the Indian Union
and to resist the onslaught of
LPG reforms through political
campaigns and administrative
measures.
l Take steps to impart quality
education to more people.
The gross enrollment ratio in
higher education the State
should be increased from
around 18% at present to 30%
over the next ten years by
expanding the opportunities for
face-to-face and distance
education.
l Public investment in higher
education should be increased.
Student Struggle
The number of Government
institutions should be increased
step by step with a view to
giving them the pride of place
in the higher education sector.
l Unaided institutions may be
permitted, subject to social
control. Preference may be
given to the co-operative
sector and Government
controlled autonomous
institutions for starting unaided
institutions.
l The Central Scheme for
Public-Private-Partnership
(PPP) which is intended to
privatize public assets should
not be implemented. On the
contrary, a new mode of PPP
that would make available
private resources for public
purposes should be devised and
implemented.
l The entire higher education
system should be decentralized
and democratized.
Autonomous clusters of
colleges which could promote
diversification and innovation in
higher education should be set
up by creating appropriate
structures for collaboration
among neighboring colleges.
l Steps should be taken to
ensure that all educational
institutions would have at least
mandatory minimum physical
and academic infrastructure
l Promote academic
collaboration between Indian
institutions and reputed foreign
institutions.
l Give priority to research in
higher education. Establish
linkages between higher
educational institutions and the
productive and social sectors
12
to ensure that the knowledge
created in academic
institutions is applicable and
made available for the
development of the country.
l Take steps to ensure periodical
training of teachers
l Establish an Open University
in the State
l Take legal and administrative
steps into ensure social control
and quality in self-financing
sector.
l Take steps to review the legal
structure of various
universities to ensure
decentralization, academic
innovation and autonomous
functioning of universities and
colleges.
l Implement Single Window
System (SWS) of admission
and collection of fee through
universities
l Ensure the protection of the
democratic and organizational
rights of teachers and students
l Take special steps for
ameliorating the difficulties of
physically challenged persons
for pursuing higher education
Education is the key to
development in a knowledge
society. It is necessary to ensure
the continuance of the policies
initiated by the LDF Government
for consolidating the gains made
and making it more inclusive by
expanding its base. In the context
of the coming elections, it is not
enough to assess the reforms
already implemented. The
impending reforms are as
important as the reforms already
implemented. These should also
be considered while making
electoral choices.
February 2011

The Left Alternative in Education :
The New Kerala Model
W HEN the Left Democratic
Front (LDF) government
came to office in Kerala in 2006,
education was in doldrums. More
than 2000 government and aided
schools were on the verge of
closure. Standards had deteriorated
so much in these schools that there
was an exodus of children from
public funded institutions to private
schools which were successful in
creating a false impression of
quality through window dressing
and clever advertising. The plight
Student Struggle
of higher education was no
different. Government and aided
colleges which had only outdated
curriculum and courses to offer
were becoming redundant. Young
boys and girls were flocking to self-
financing professional colleges,
most of which had only poor
infrastructure and charged hefty
fees. Rajani S Anand, the hapless
girl who committed suicide by
jumping off the multi-storied
building which housed the office of
the Commissioner of Entrance
13
M A Baby
Examinations epitomised the sense
of gloom and despondency that
was characteristic of Kerala’s
educational scenario in 2006. While
education was becoming
increasingly inaccessible, there
was all-round deterioration in
quality right from the primary to the
post graduate levels. Kerala’s
achievements in education were
in danger of being eroded, both
in quantitative and qualitative
terms.
The LDF government not
February 2011
only attempted to stem the rot by
taking immediate corrective steps
but also initiated structural changes
which would rejuvenate education
in the state on a long term basis.
The problems faced by the state
were in some ways different from
those in other states and the
solutions had to be different as
well. The LDF was also convinced
of the need to evolve an alternate
strategy of development that would
be truly inclusive in terms of
access, equity and quality, different
from the agenda of liberalisation,
privatisation and globalisation
pursued by the central
government. This necessitated a
lot of thinking and planning at
various levels. What emerged in
the process was a participatory
mode for conceiving and
implementing reforms, which is
perhaps the most important
innovation of the LDF government
in education during the last five
years.
Student Struggle
EQUITY AND
EXCELLENCE
True to its commitment to
providing quality education for all,
the government introduced a
special scheme for the
development of least performing
schools in the state. It identified
104 schools with less than 33 per
cent pass percentage in the SSLC
examination for special quality
enhancement programme. The
ameliorative approach was not only
novel in conception but in
implementation as well. The local
self-governments and the local
people collaborated with the
government in improving
infrastructure and providing
academic ambience conducive to
enhancement of quality. The
success of the programme was
reflected in the SSLC results year
after year. The average pass
percentage in these schools was 80
per cent in the last SSLC
examination. The performance of
the students across the state has
also improved over the last five
years. The clear indicator in this
14
regard is the SSLC examination
results which saw pass percentage
enhanced from 58 per cent in 2005
to over 90 per cent in 2010. The
success of the initiative prompted
implementation of similar
programmes for SC/ST/Minority
students across the state. Another
important step taken by the
government was to strengthen the
mid-day meal scheme by adding
milk and eggs twice a week. Apart
from including the excluded, the
steps taken by the government for
improving the quality of the least
performing schools/groups/
individuals also helped evolve an
alternative model for public-
private-partnership in education.
The government could revive the
dormant tradition of philanthropic
public-private-partnership in
education through these
programmes. The Kerala model
where private resources are made
available for public use is quite
different from the model of public-
private-partnership being
implemented by the central
government which would result in
private appropriation of public
February 2011
assets. In a national-level study
conducted in 2010 by Educational
Initiatives, an Ahmedabad-based
NGO, with the support of Google
evaluating the learning levels of
government school students in
languages and Maths, Kerala has
emerged as the top performing
state.
The structural reforms
undertaken by the LDF
government at the school level
include curricular reforms that
have brought about revolutionary
changes in the content and
pedagogy of school education.
Drawing upon the National
Curriculum Framework (NCF),
Kerala developed a Kerala
Curriculum Framework (KCF).
While adopting the basic principles
of social constructivism and critical
pedagogy advocated in the NCF,
the KCF could localise its
implementation by involving the
Student Struggle
entire stakeholders including
students, teachers, parents and
experts. This was complemented
by extensive training given to
teachers in the nuances of the new
curriculum. The ban on recruitment
of teachers was lifted and more
than 5000 school teachers have
since been appointed. The
government also facilitated the
opening of additional batches for
plus one courses in the Malabar
region, covering 120 panchayats,
helping to enhance access,
especially among Minority
students. A systematic effort was
made to universalise IT education
and IT enabled education among
school children which has been
widely acclaimed. Steps were also
taken to revise Kerala Educational
Rules and to frame rules for the
implementation of the Right to
Education Act in the state.
The reforms introduced in
15
higher education also had the twin
objectives of promoting equity and
excellence. A number of
scholarships on merit-cum-means
basis were introduced. In the
higher secondary level, 10,000
scholarships each worth Rs 5000
were instituted. The State Higher
Education Council introduced a five
year scholarship scheme. 1000
scholarships are awarded each
year to degree and post graduate
students. A scholar will get 1.54
lakh rupees over a five year period.
The funds required for the
scholarships are raised through
public-private-participation. The
Council has received contributions
big and small, the latest being the
commitment to contribute Rs Five
crores over a period of ten years
by Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of
Infosys. The government has also
instituted Suvarna Jubilee
Scholarship for BPL category of
February 2011
students and another scholarship
for Muslim girls, apart from
implementing the central sector
scholarships.
The government constituted
the State Council for Higher
Education to innovate reforms and
to co-ordinate their
implementation. One of the
important reforms initiated by the
Council was to rejuvenate the
government and aided sector and
traditional disciplines. Steps were
taken to restructure the
undergraduate programmes by
introducing choice-based-course-
credit-semester system
(CBCCSS) and grading. Kerala is
perhaps the only state which has
faithfully implemented the UGC
vision on restructuring
Student Struggle
undergraduate education. It was
possible to implement this complex
reform without any hassles due to
meticulous planning and
implementation under the
leadership of the State Higher
Education Council. The
implementation of the CBCCSS
has opened up the opportunities for
quality education for all, which is a
remarkable departure from the
prevailing practice of setting up
exclusive islands of excellence.
The object of the reform is to
democratise quality in higher
education. Kerala is the first state
in the entire country to seriously
take up the recommendations for
setting up clusters of colleges. All
Education Commissions in free
India, starting with Kothari
16
Commission and including National
Knowledge Commission have
commended the system of clusters
of colleges, with a view to
extending excellence from the
centre to the periphery by pooling
intellectual and physical resources
available among neighbouring
colleges. The scheme has now
been implemented on an
experimental basis in
Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and
Kozhikode. The Higher Education
Council is also engaged in setting
up a comprehensive data bank on
higher education in the state, the
first effort of its kind in the whole
country. The reports brought out
by the Council on the State Policy
on Higher Education, Restructuring
Undergraduate Education, Scheme
February 2011
of Cluster of Colleges, Examination under the previous UDF regime
Reforms, Revision of University The scholar-in- with no regulatory control could be
Acts etc. have evoked residence programme brought under an arrangement for
unprecedented popular interest in (ERUDITE) is a novel scheme seat sharing with the government
higher education. implemented by the and having socially sensitive fees
government for structure. The total commitment of
NOVEL SCHEME collaborating with the government to social justice
The scholar-in-residence internationally renowned and its determination to ensure it,
programme (ERUDITE) is a novel universities and their helped in overcoming successive
scheme implemented by the faculty. The scheme challenges in the self-financing
government for collaborating with provides for extended visits sector. The achievements of the
internationally renowned by well known scholars to LDF government in Kerala in the
universities and their faculty. The the universities in the self-financing sector acquire more
scheme provides for extended visits state. A number of sheen if pitted against the
by well known scholars to the renowned scholars, retrograde steps being taken by the
universities in the state. A number including eight Nobel central government in this sector
of renowned scholars, including Laureates, have taken part during the last five years. The
eight Nobel Laureates, have taken in the programme so far. common minimum programme
part in the programme so far. Apart from its inspirational (CMP) of UPA-I had promised
Apart from its inspirational value, value, the visits of such that nobody would be denied
the visits of such scholars have also scholars have also led to access to higher professional
led to sustained academic sustained academic education for want of financial
collaboration between the collaboration between the resources. But the promise has not
universities in the state and reputed universities in the state and been redeemed so far. The draft
foreign universities. The scheme is reputed foreign bill prepared by MHRD in 2005 and
qualitatively different from that universities. the draft regulations prepared by
promoted by the central UGC in 2007 which contained
conducted for teachers. For
government which has piloted the several provisions for ensuring
content development, schemes
‘Foreign Universities Bill’ to social justice have now been set
such as K-base, The Scholar,
facilitate the setting up of off aside. In their place, Kapil Sibal
Gurusmarana and Promelavya are
campus centres of foreign has introduced the bill on
being implemented. Quality
universities in the country. The ‘Prevention of Unfair Practices in
improvement programme was
central initiative facilitates Technical and Medical Educational
implemented in Polytechnics.
academic re-colonisation of India. Institutions’ which is intended to
Seventeen Finishing Schools were
Kerala’s experiment would legalise corporatisation and
also set up to improve the
promote academic regeneration commercialisation of technical and
employability of the polytechnic
through collaborative engagements medical education. There is no
pass outs.
on a global scale. provision in the bill for a common
Despite obstructionist
The efforts of the entrance test (CET) or a single
interventions from the vested
government to improve the quality window system (SWS) of
interests and unhelpful judicial
of education in the technical admission. There is no provision
verdicts, the government could still
education sector have borne fruits. for implementing constitutionally
ensure a modicum of social justice
Smart classes with internet mandated reservation. There is
in the self-financing sector. A
connectivity have been set up in all also no legal sanction for an
majority of the self-financing
government engineering colleges. inclusive fees structure. The bill
institutions which were started
Regular training programmes are only seeks to ensure transparency
Student Struggle 17 February 2011

in the business of education. With
the enactment of the bill in the
parliament, even the existing
admission and fees regulatory
committees in the state will have
to be disbanded.
Even as Kerala was
implementing its own unique
programmes in higher education it
was also trying to make the best
use of enhanced central assistance
for higher education. A number of
new institutions including Indian
Institute of Space Science and
Technology (IIST), Indian Institute
of Science Education and
Research (IISER), a Central
University and a Centre of Aligarh
Muslim University have been set
up in the state during the last five
years with central assistance. The
National Centre for Molecular
Materials, Regional Centre of
Indian Institute of Mass
Communication and the World
Class Central University will be
established. The Centre for
Engineering Research and
Development (CERD) is
established to encourage basic and
Student Struggle
applied research in engineering and
technology and the Trivandrum
Engineering Science and
Technology Research (TREST)
Park is established to enhance
industry-institute interaction and to
promote R&D activities. A number
of Inter-University centres have
been set up in the state on the
model of such centres set up by
the UGC which would hopefully
develop into advanced centres
doing study and research in frontier
inter-disciplinary areas including
bio-informatics, intellectual
property rights and development
studies, environment and
sustainable development,
nanomaterials and devices,
biosciences, disability studies,
social science research and
extension, Kerala legacy of
astronomy and mathematics, plant
biotechnology, marine
biotechnology, genomics and gene
technology and biomedical
research. The Raja Ravi Varma
Centre of Excellence for Visual
Arts is envisaged as an inter
university centre in Visual Arts.
18
School for Performance,
Aesthetics and Culture (SPACE)
is an interdisciplinary research and
study centre of unique character
for creating aesthetic awareness
and experience and for promoting
the study of performing arts and
cultural practices.
In addition to these, new
colleges and courses were started
in government, aided and unaided
sectors. The 12 year ban on
appointment of teachers was lifted
by the government. More than
2500 teachers were appointed in
colleges and universities during the
last five years. Of this 1700 were
appointed to new posts created
during the period. While the
previous UDF government had
progressively reduced the budget
allocation for higher education, the
LDF government increased the
budgetary allocation year after
year. The non-plan grant for
universities alone was enhanced
from Rs 790 crore in 2005-06 to
Rs 2296 crore in 2011-12.
Education is the key to
development in a knowledge
society. It is necessary to ensure
the continuance of the policies
initiated by the LDF government
for consolidating the gains made
and making it more inclusive by
expanding its base. In the context
of the coming elections, it is not
enough to assess the reforms
already implemented. The
impending reforms are as
important as the reforms already
implemented. The agenda of
reforms presented at the third
International Congress on Kerala
Development assumes critical
importance in this context.
February 2011

Universities Play Footsie with
Company Labeled ‘Baby Killer’
I t is a company that has been the
subject of an international
boycott for over 23 years –
perhaps the longest standing
boycott of a global corporation. It
has been labeled by activist
organisations as a “baby killer” for
persistent unethical marketing of
breast milk substitutes. Yet the
same company, media reports
indicate, has signed a memorandum
of understanding with four public
sector educational institutions.
Recent reports in the press (Times
of India, dated January 1, 2011)
suggest that Nestle India, a 61.9
per cent subsidiary of Nestle S A
of Switzerland, signed an MOU
with Punjab Agricultural University
(PAU) Ludhiana; National Dairy
Research Institute, Karnal,
Haryana; University of Mysore in
Karnataka; and the GB Pant
University for Agriculture and
Technology, Pantnagar,
Uttarakhand. Under the MoU,
Nestle staff along with the faculty
of these universities launched a
“nutrition education” programme.
This joint initiative, it is understood,
was launched in April 2009 by
minister of state for rural
development Agatha Sangma along
with Nestle India chairman Helio
Waszyk.
Student Struggle
MOU SHROUDED IN
SECRECY
The story gets murkier
still. PAU has refused to give
information about the MoU and the
details of the nutrition education
programme, in response to a RTI
application. It has now been
reported that information about the
MoU was refused as the MoU
itself states that: “This MoU, its
existence and all information
exchanged between the parties
under this MoU or during the
negotiations preceding this
MoU is confidential to them and
may not be shared with a third
party”. The Times of India reports
that the head of the department of
nutrition in PAU, Dr J K Sangha,
actually wrote to Nestle seeking its
permission to reply to the RTI
petition. In his reply dated July 1,
2010, the senior manager of
corporate affairs in Nestle, Ajay
Pal Singh Kang, wrote back stating:
“We wish to inform you that all
contents of the programme being
conducted jointly by PAU and
Nestle India have been specially
developed by scientists and
experts to be used exclusively to
carry out the set objectives of the
MoU. The contents of the
programme are of commercial
19
Amit Sen Gupta
and confidential nature and the
disclosure of which may harm
our competitive position…
Therefore, we are constrained to
decline our consent for the
supply or disclosure, to any third
party, of any information or
document pertaining to this joint
collaboration.”
The obvious question that
needs to be asked is why a
programme on “nutrition
education” should be shrouded in
such secrecy, and further what
could be the “commercial and
confidential” nature of such a
programme. The questions are
particularly important given that the
company involved is Nestle. The
UK based Corporate Watch
website says: “The World Health
Organisation (WHO) estimates
that 1.5 million infants die each
year because of inappropriate
feeding, because children
vulnerable to disease are being
bottle-fed on breast milk
substitutes rather than breastfed
whenever possible. As the world’s
largest artificial baby milk
producer controlling 40 per cent
of the market, Nestlé has been
seen as a leading cause of this
catastrophe..”
February 2011
INTERNATIONAL CODE
ON MARKETING
Responding to global
concerns about the unethical nature
of marketing of breast milk
substitutes, the WHO in 1981
formulated the International Code
of Marketing of Breastmilk
Substitutes. India formulated its
own law, keeping in mind the
provisions of the code, in 1992. The
Act, known as the Infant Milk
Substitutes Act (IMS) was further
strengthened through amendments
in 2003.
The WHO code includes
several acts that baby food
companies such as Nestle should
not do:
• promote their products in
hospitals, shops or to the
general public;
• give free samples to
mothers or free or
subsidised supplies to
hospitals or maternity
wards;
• give gifts to health workers
or mothers;
• promote their products to
health workers: any
information provided by
companies must contain
only scientific and factual
matters;
• promote foods or drinks
for babies;
• give misleading
information
The code further says that:
• There should be no
contact between baby
milk company sales
personnel and mothers.
• Labels must be in a
language understood by
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the mother and must
include a clear health
warning.
• Baby pictures may not be
shown on baby milk labels.
• The labels must not include
language which idealises
the use of the product.
Nestle has been singled out,
internationally, as the biggest
violator of this code. In 2004,
monitoring results from 69 countries
showed up over 2,000 violations of
the code, and Nestlé was found
responsible for more violations than
any other company. But then, this
is befitting of a company that takes
pride in being the world’s largest
and most “diversified food
company” in the world, with
around 2,50,000 employees
worldwide, 500 factories in
approximately 100 countries and
offering over 8,000 products to
millions of consumers universally.
In India, Nestle markets its
products in four key categories –
milk products, beverages, prepared
dishes and cooking aids,
chocolates & confectionery.
Nestle has been the market leader
with 70 per cent share in the Rs
1000 crore instant noodles market
and in the infant baby food
segment. Outside the baby food
market, Nestle’s prominent brands
include Nescafe, Maggi and
KitKat.
DIVERSE METHODS TO
SUBVERT THE LAW
Faced with negative publicity
and legal measures instituted in
many countries, companies such as
Nestle have consistently tried to
circumvent the WHO code and
20
country laws. A regular ploy has
been to resort to double standards
while advertising its products —
ie advertise the same product
differently in countries of the North
and the South. In 2008, Nestle was
caught out when an advertisement
for Maggie Noodles claimed it
strengthened muscles and bones.
The Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA) banned the
advertisement in the UK and said
that it was deceptive and violated
the UK’s strict industry code.
Nestle, claimed that their products
that were due to appear in
Bangladesh had been accidentally
aired in Britain!
Another common ploy has
been to tie up with professional
organisations on issues that would
appear to be of “public interest”,
and thereby try to influence them.
To do so, in India, Nestle uses a
surrogate front organisation – the
Nestle Nutrition Institute. The
Breast Promotion Network of
India (the Indian Chapter of the
International Breast Feeding Action
Network) reported last year that
the Institute had sponsored
conferences of doctors in Kolkata
and Chennai on “Emerging Trends
in Pediatric Nutrition”. Such
sponsorships clearly violate
provisions of the Infant Milk
Substitutes Act in India.
This is by no means an isolated
instance. Last year the
Postgraduate Institute of Medical
Education & Research (PGIMER)
in Chandigarh was embroiled in a
similar controversy. Nestle
Nutrition Institute had been listed
as one of the sponsors of the 16th
annual conference on nutrition
sponsored by the Indian Society for
February 2011
Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
(ISPEN). The sponsorship deal
was called off at the last moment
when the matter was made public
by the Breast Feeding Promotion
Network in India. The issue had
even prompted the secretaries of
the ministries of health and women
and child development to write a
joint letter asking for a ban on
sponsorship by baby food
manufacturers or their front
organisations of health workers,
doctors or meetings of their
associations. The letter had pointed
out numerous instances of
corporate sponsorship and
unethical practices such as:
offering to set up libraries in medical
colleges; approaching
Tri Valley University:
An Experience from the Dubious Institution
T he Central Executive
Committee of the Students’
Federation of India (SFI)
expresses its strong protest in the
shocking decision taken by the
United States of making some
Indian students of the California
based Tri Valley University wear
radio collars round their ankles to
monitor their movements. The
students have gone there with all
the legal documents. The visa and
other necessary papers are in their
hand. They are cornered just
because the university turns out
to be illegal and not registered as
per the US law. The fundamental
human rights of the students are
being denied. This is totally
inhuman and unacceptable. The
Ministry of External Affairs should
take up the matter with US at
Student Struggle
paediatricians and providing them
with gifts and also distributing
infant feeding booklets with
misleading information on infant
feeding in several hospitals, etc.
Nestle has resorted to
unethical tactics to promote its
other products as well. In 2010
Nestle was made to withdraw TV
commercials aired between April
and June, by the Advertising
Standards Council of India (ASCI).
ASCI decreed that Nestle Maggi
Ketchup’s claims of being healthy
was misleading – Nestle’s
commercial showed an obese and
aged gentleman consuming
unhealthy burgers with claims of
“Make India Healthy.”
appropriate level to ensure
immediate removal of the collars.
They must get all legal help for their
shifting to other universities or if
they want to return to India they
must be able to do so honourably
and must not be deported.
This is not for the first time the
Indian students were made victims
of sham universities abroad and the
same sort of universities are going
to come in India thanks to the
policies of the Central Government.
SFI has been demanding the
government to withdraw the Foreign
Education Providers Bill.
SFI urges the government and
all the statutory authorities to black
list all the education institutions
abroad that are cheating students
with their false claims and fake
registrations. These institutions are
21
CORPORATE INTERESTS
ARE SUPREME
Clearly, Nestle has a
colourful track record that should
have prompted public institutions to
think twice before deciding to play
footsie. This is not just a conflict
of interest issue. It goes beyond and
involves vexing issues that are seen
to arise today as educational
institutions are being forced to
raise extra resources, and thereby
making themselves available for
predation by commercial interests.
But then, one can argue that in
today’s climate corporate interests
rank way above public interest –
even when they put into jeopardy
the lives of countless infants.
playing on the ignorance of the
people and looting crores of rupees
from them using the increasing
demand for higher education in
our country. The failure of the
government to meet this demand
for higher education too added to
the advantage of these dubious
institutions. The government had
done precious little to check the
enrolment of Indian students in
such institutions apart from
‘appealing’ to the people not to fall
in their trap.
SFI demands the government
to immediately initiate stringent
action to deliver all the necessary
assistance to these students. It is
the responsibility of the
government to act and protect the
people of our country from falling
prey to these institutions.
February 2011
 Successful vidhana soudha chalo
Demanding
Reservation of 30% of Sate budget for Education And
Solutions of burning problems in education

Students’ Federation of India, under
the leadership of Karnataka State
Unit, took out a successful massive
rally of students to Vidhana Soudha
on Thursday, 26th February 2011,
in Bangalore demanding
Reservation of 30% of Sate
budget for Education for solution
to all the burning problems faced
by the Students-Teaching
community right from primary
education upto higher education.
Students who had come from
different districts of the State,
flaunting dazzling white banners of
Liberty, Democracy an Socialism,
and shouting Slogans against the
Education Policy of State
Government, took out a Mammoth
Protest Rally from Chikka lall bagh
to Vidhana Soudha. The booming
slogans by students of schools and
colleges were echoing deprivation
of the facilities of education and
grave problems as a result of the
Government’s education policy.
The protest rally converged
near the Freedom Park on
Sheshadri Road. Com.Anantha
nayak, State Secretary of SFI gave

Student Struggle 22 February 2011

an introductory speech. Com. G.V.
Sreerama Reddy, former Legislator
and founder leader of SFI
addressing the gathering, stated
that the Central &m State
Governments have failed in
providing free education to all,
even after 62 years of
independence. He criticized that
the present UPA Government,
which has silently ignored the
reports of six previous commissions
for Education reforms, is in a great
hurry to implement report of
Prof.yashpal, with t6he goal of
privatizing, centralising and
commercializing Education in the
Country.
Useless B.J.P.Government:
BJP Government ruling the state
is completely immersed in
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corruption and creating anarchy in
the State. The Government which
took over power in the name of
progress is looting the State. It is
in a great hurry to commercialise
and trade Education in the State.
The Government, which is not
bothered to provide even the basic
facilities to students, by lobbying in
favour of private educational
institutions supporting
communalization and privatisation
of education, has become a totally
irresponsible and useless
Government. When the Students
community and the people are
engulfed in hosts of problems, the
Coward Chief Minister laments
that this life in under threat. If he
can not protect his own life, who
can protect the students-boys and
23
girls studying in schools and
colleges and staying in hostels?
Mr.Sreeram Reddy called upon the
students’ community to oust the
useless and coward Chief Minister
and his Government.
The Pseudo struggle of
ABVP: He said that the ABVP
organisation which is carrying on
agitation against corruption
throughout the nation is supporting
the corrupt State government and
is waging mock battle. He called
upon the students to wage decisive
battle against the ABVP which is
misleading the Students’
community and also against the
Corrupt BJP Government.
Com.Rajashekhara Murthy, State
Secretary of DYFI, addressing the
rally, said that on the one side,
February 2011
students of poor and backward
communities are deprived of
education as a result of steep
increasing in education fees and on
the other hand creating a vast army
of unemployed by not generating
employment to the educated youth.
Hence he called for intensification
of agitation for education &
employment to all.
Next, addressing the Rally,
Com. Lakshmi, General Secretary
AIDWA, pointed out that the
number of girls is higher among
those deprived of education in the
State. She said even the number
of girls going for higher education
is still less. The increasing
education fees and
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commercialization of education,
and discriminative policy of State
& Central Government, is the main
reason for this , and she called
upon the students organisation to
build up strong resistance to defeat
these policies.
Arrival of Minister and
promise of fulfilling demands.
Sri Narayana Swamy,
Minister for Social Welfare, who
arrived on behalf of the
Government, received the
memorandum and assured of
enhancing the food allowance for
hostel students and improving basic
amenities in hostels. He also
promised that he would discuss
other demands of students with the
24
Chief Minister, and then invite SFI
leaders for discussion.
Com.H.R.Naveen Kumar, State
President of SFI, speaking on the
occasion, stressed that Government
must enhance the budget provision
for Education and accede to all our
demands. He cautioned that state
wide agitation would be called for
in the coming days, if the
Government fails to accede to our
demands.
State Office bearers of SFI,
Coms .Hulli Ramesh, Soumya,
Jagadeesh Surya, Vinay Kumar,
M.G.Narayana Kale and
Com.Chikkaraju, Bangalore
District leader addressed the
Rallying Students.
February 2011
 Solidarity with massive working class
struggle
T his year marks the completion
of 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 have
increased manifold. The rich have
grown increasingly rich, the poor
have gone further down the
ladder. India today has the
dubious distinction of being home
to highest number of hungry
people in the world. The statistics
of unemployment, hunger,
undernutrition, poor maternal and
child health, low human
development indices stare all of us
in the face. The situation has been
deteriorating further after the
global economic crisis, which has
led to a loss in export markets and
earnings. Back home we are
seeing cascading prices and
shameless plunder of country’s
resources through corrupt
practices.
The biggest victims of this
flawed crony capitalist
development have been the toiling
masses: working classes, farmers
of the country. Farmer suicides
continue unabated even today.
Unemployment has reached
alarming proportions at 9.4%
according to a survey conducted
by the Labour Bureau. There are
Student Struggle
government estimates which
suggest that more than 76% of the
country’s population is living on a
per capita expenditure of less than
Rs 20 per day. More than 94%
of the country’s workforce is in
the unorganized sector without any
social security, employee’s
benefits or even adherence to
basic labour laws.
The government on the other
hand is least bothered. All the tall
promises made by the UPA before
the elections regarding pro-people/
working class measures have
been put in the cold storage. In
fact, it is aiding these predatory
practices continuously. The
biggest example of this can be
seen on the issue of price rise. On
the one hand there is a stubborn
refusal to provide relief to the
people through providing cheap
foodgrains to the people, lakhs of
tonnes of which are rotting in
government warehouses and on
the other, the government is adding
fuel to fire by increasing prices of
petroleum products and allowing
speculative activities in the food
grain market. The renewed
offensive with regard to
disinvestment of Public Sector
Units is another such example.
The recent press conference
held by the Prime Minister where
25
he has equated the concessions to
corporates in the 2G scam to
subsidies for the poor is a stark
reminder of the pro-rich mindset
of this government.
It is in this backdrop that all
major trade unions are going
to hold a massive mobilization
in Delhi on February 23rd. All
major trade unions of the
country have given this call to
press for not just demands
related to workers or the trade
union movement, but for the
people at large. The main
demands to be raised are:
¾ Universalisation of the
PDS and stopping
speculative trade and
black marketing in
food items.
¾ Strict adherence of
labour laws and action
against any violations
¾ Making employment
security in recession hit
sectors a part of incen-
tives for entrepreneurs
and increasing public
investment for employ-
ment generation.
¾ Enacting Social Secu-
rity laws for
unorganised sector
workers and doing
away with the any BPL
February 2011
 requirements to avail
of these schemes.
¾ Stopping disinvestment
of PSUs to meet the
budget deficit.
Reports about the review of
preparations have indicated
that lakhs of workers are going
to assemble in Delhi on the
23rd. It is being said that this
march will be the biggest working
class mobilisation in Delhi after
1992.
We believe that it is
imperative for the students to also
show solidarity to the struggle of
the working classes. A look at the
developments worldover only
underlines the need to do so.
Today, students and youth across
the world are rising in protest
against the neo-liberal anti-people
Student Struggle
policies. The failed promises of
free market and neo-liberalism
which have been laid bare by the
aftermaths of the economic crisis
even in the developed world, have
put a fresh wave of energy in the
student and youth movements
worldwide. Across Europe,
students and youth have come out
in streets in hundreds of
thousands, not only to protest
against cuts in education spending,
but also in solidarity with the
working class struggles. The role
of students and youth in the
democratic upsurge in Tunisia
and Egypt cannot be
overlooked. Carrying forward
the inspiration from these
places, students and youth
across various other countries
of the Arab are also rising in
protest against the ruling
26
regimes. The images of young
people in protest actions speak for
themselves. When the world at
large is seeing these changes
and the ruling classes are
losing credibility among the
masses-who are slowly rising
in protest against unjust
regimes and inequitable
growth trajectories-it is
imperative that the students in
India also stand in solidarity
with the working classes. 23rd
February, it is being said will be a
milestone in the history of working
class assertions in India.
The SFI CEC calls
upon all its units to hold
solidarity actions on February
23rd across the country and
express support to the struggle
of the working classes.
February 2011
 P.K. Anand

23 February Workers’ Rally:

From the Eyes of a Student

I t has been almost seven years

since I have working in SFI-
JNU, as an activist in the
trained and empowered through

class struggles have always

numbers. More than joining the
workers in the March, I was also
the larger left ideology, working
greatly interested in being a
beginning and later, coming into volunteer and helping out the
provided me with inspiration; in
the leadership. However, in this CITU comrades in setting up and
fact, it always injected in me with
entire time frame, 23 February, helping out, in the residential
a special kind of awe. The early
2011 will stand out as Red letter camp, put up for accommodating
days as an activist itself, many of
Day, when on the solidarity call comrades coming from across
us comrades, were also part of
given by SFI, students from three the protests against brutal India in Ramlila Maidan in the
universities in Delhi-DU, Jamia lathicharge and repression oncapital. After having closely
and JNU marched along with agitating workers of Honda followed the rising upsurge of the
lakhs and lakhs of workers from people in the Arab world,
factory in Gurgaon by Police in
across the length and breadth of 2005. Having been closely especially in Tunisia and Egypt,
India, who had been mobilized where after long days of intense
associated with those protests and
following a Joint Call given by 9 also joining other senior struggle and perseverance, the
Trade Unions. The march literally people successfully brought about
comrades, in enforcing strikes in
brought centre of the National a revolution and dumping
industrial areas like Okhla on
Capital to a virtual standstill. This dictatorial regimes. Not only this,
national calls, also charged me up.
massive mobilization cannot be Ever since this rally plan was the fact that militant students’
just seen from the prism of the struggles in many parts of Europe
announced, I was greatly
interested in attending it. As were also added boosters.
Workers; the central demands also
very much concerned and went to secretary of the JNU Unit of SFI,
However, one was also sad by
touch nerves of the common man. I also had the greater
seeing the fact four suicides had
brought down regimes in Tunisia,
responsibility of mobilizing greater
Students’ Role in Solidarity but even after lakhs of farmer
number of people in the
to the Working Classes: suicides, the situation in India still
organization as well as common
remained unchanged. My mind
As a student, having been students to join the rally in large was also calling for ‘Tahrirs’ to
Student Struggle 27 February 2011

unveil in our country. It is in this
context that I heard about the
massive working class
mobilization on 23 February.
I feel that the biggest aspect
of the students’ solidarity with the
working class for this rally was
also because majority of the
demands resonated with the aam
aadmi. Primarily, demanding the
government to curb rising prices
and universalize the public
distribution system rallied with the
students as well. Spiralling prices
break the back of the common
man-who is definitely from the
Working Class. No proper food
to nourish them in the event of
these rising prices as well as other
related aspects like hoarding and
black marketing, greatly affect the
struggling masses of this country.
Other demands like stopping
contractualization, retrenchments,
strengthen public sector, and
initiating social security schemes
for the unorganized sector also
greatly resonated with the
struggles waged by SFI against
neo-liberal policies in
Student Struggle
education. Also, a crucial aspect
is the fact that, I also had a duty
to fulfill. My academics had been
subsidized; I am getting a good
scholarship; Hostel fees are
minimal. This all is the result of the
money paid by the tax payers of
this country, mostly workers and
peasants. Their blood and sweat
fund my education. So, morally
too, there is strong bond, with
those unseen faces. Therefore,
when their rights are under attack
and their issues have to be fought
for through struggles, it is also a
time to give back. Stand in unison
with their issues, join them in their
mobilization, echo their slogans
and give whatever possible help.
My days of working in SFI have
also taught me this-perhaps the
biggest lesson in my life.
I also feel that students do not
just remain confined to raising their
own demands and fighting single
domain struggles. Such insulation
from the larger struggles outside
the confines of campuses does no
good in further augmenting those
domain struggles as well. Simple
28
phrase-mongering as done by the
ultra-left in the name of
‘revolution’ cannot be the way
forward. It is only through strong
praxis, in the form of actual
mobilization with the larger
struggles that further boost and
strengthen the student movement
for greater struggles ahead. It is
such inspiration that was provided
by marching in arms with the
working classes and echoing their
slogans, on 23 February.
Being a Red Guard and
Camp Volunteer
All the student comrades of
the SFI became the Red Guards.
Donning the red attire and
carrying flags/banners, they
marched in front of the rally. Such
an experience not only gave a
sense of pride, but also was an
occasion to rise above the middle
class background, from which
most of the students come from.
Most of the SFI activists and
students also felt an great
experience being part of this
group. Being the Red Guard also
brought me out of my comfort
zone, into direct contact with the
larger progressive movement,
thereby making me sync with its
ebb and flow. In waging struggles
in the futures, this experience
would also stand in good stead.
The niceties and compactness
associated with the middle classes
stand in contrast with the daily
struggles of the working class.
Hence, being a red guard
volunteer lifted my spirits, and
made me look beyond my crass
middle class confines. In fact, it
February 2011

was getting inspiration from the
working class. This was also a
moment when in literal terms, the
Marxist theories learnt in
classroom discussions and
debates, were joined in the
concrete terms as a symphony in
praxis. That was also a crucial
point that was reflected in this
rally. In an age, where middle-
class cynicism and apathy have
always been directed towards
such genuine struggles and
movements-a fact that finds
reflection in the way electronic and
print media blacked out the rally-
such solidarity in praxis by the
students in this rally, also augurs
well and builds foundations for
larger movements in the days
ahead. It’s like planting a seed that
should be nurtured well, so that it
grows into a fruit-bearing tree, in
the future. Being a red guard not
only instilled in me, a sense pride,
but greatly resonated even in the
slogans of other student
comrades. Coming from various
language backgrounds and
different states, slogans from
different languages rent the air,
Student Struggle
upfront the rally. We also sung
revolutionary songs, which was
motivational for the participants in
the rally. Also, working and
volunteering in the residential
camp at Ramlila Maidan also
made me conscious of the
arduous and painful struggles
waged by the workers to defend
their rights and fight for genuine
demands. Many of my fellow
comrades also experienced the
same feeling, rather than being
feeling overburdening with
responsibilities. Having seen the
common masses, walking
barefooted and carrying their
families wit them, also shattered
many middle class aspirations in
me. Seeing the Delhi roads
blocked, also gave a sense of
satisfaction: the working class on
that day had clearly won over
the nouveau rich, cynical and the
pessimists in the city; being in a
traffic block for a few hours was
worth it.
Another aspect, which I feel
is also crucial is the role of the
students-youth in further
29
disseminating the effect of the rally.
While the mainstream media
virtually neglected the rally, social
networking sites like Facebook
and Twitter were swarmed with
comments and photographs of the
rally. The uses of new media to
not only propagate the demands
of the working classes, but also
to counter ruling class agenda is
also a hallmark of this rally. The
role of myself and other student
comrades, even after the rally in
this aspect, is also worth
mentioning. The fact that such
media have also been used as sites
of struggle is also a crucial aspect
that needs to be analyzed and
strengthened in the days to come.
Overall, seeing a sea of
people, out on the streets
automatically gets one charged up
and voice support for genuine
demands. That was what
happened literally, on 23
February. That day, the streets of
Delhi and Parliament Street, where
the Rally converged clearly
brought forth the images of Tahrir
Square. After being part of such a
massive mobilization, one can
surely guess the mammoth size of
the Million people swarming
Cairo’s Central Square for 18
days continuously. This experience
also serves as booster for vibrant
life of the student movement, and
shakes away any sense of
monotony. Solidarity in both
theory and praxis as well as Once
in a Lifetime Experience-that’s
how one can best sum up
participation in this rally as student/
activist.
February 2011
 Students’ Federation of India
40 Years of Study, Struggle & Sacrifice
S tudents have always had an
important role to play in
transforming the society
historically. In our country right
from the days of freedom struggle
students have been at the forefront
of struggles and have made
numerous sacrifices also. The SFI
traces its origins to the formation
of the All India Students’
Federation in 1936 which had a
glorious contribution in the struggle
against the British Rule. The year
2010 is the 40th year of the SFI’s
formation. In the last four decades
we have continuously mobilized
students holding high the banner
of Independence, Democracy and
Socialism.
The struggle against the
draconian emergency imposed by
Indira Gandhi’s Congress
Government, a steadfast political-
ideological struggle against the
secession movements in Assam,
Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir
which were aimed at dividing our
country, struggle against the New
Education Policy of the Rajiv
Gandhi government which
unleashed privatization and
commercialization, the struggle
against anti-reservation
reactionaries after the Mandal
Commission recommendations
Student Struggle
and the struggle against
communalization and
saffronization drive of the BJP led
who are much more poor and
underdeveloped than we are.
Today we see in front of our
NDA are some of the glorious eyes a concerted onslaught of
struggles waged by the SFI in its centralization, commercialization
history. and privatization of education
Today students are advised especially in the colleges and
to stay away from politics and universities. Education is
student activism is portrayed as increasingly becoming costly and
something which is bound to out of reach for the common
create problems and do harm to population and hence majority of
the student community. The SFI the students in our country.
has always appealed to students Imparting education has become
to join student activism with the similar to any other activity for
slogan of merely seeking profits. Under the
regime of the UPA Government
WHEN POLITICS DECIDED and HRD Minister Mr. Kapil
YOUR FUTURE, YOU Sibal, floodgates have been
MUST DECIDE WHAT opened for this onslaught on the
YOUR POLITICS IS! education sector. It is increasingly
India despite of its high being propagated that colleges
growth rates of GDP continues to and universities should recover all
one of the most backward their costs from the students. The
countries in the field of education. government itself is trying hard to
Our adult literacy rate is still around legitimize the view that private and
61%. Only 12% of our youth get even foreign players are the best
an opportunity to attend any solutions for addressing the
higher educational institution ever. problems of education sector in
Government expenditure on our country. This government has
education in our country is one of brought in a lot of legislations like
the lowest even among the the Foreign Education Providers’
developing countries. We are Bill, the National Commission for
ranked 134 th in the UNDP’s Higher Education and Research
Human Development Index, Bill, the National Education
lower than many African countries Tribunal Bill which if passed would
30 February 2011
fundamentally alter the structure of the socio-economic problems of 25000 innocent lives were too less
higher education in our country. our society. Research is dictated a price for the government to
by private multi-national wake up and take stern action
ON WHOSE BEHALF IS corporations rather than helping against the accused. The Civic
THE GOVERNMENT the poor and the downtrodden. Nuclear Liability Bill, which has
ACTING? The vision of the government in been placed in the Parliament
Today education policy is formulating education policies is plans to absolve foreign suppliers
being determined by businessmen only limited to the minority of of any responsibility in case of
and corporate houses. Some years homogenous India which is nuclear accidents which could be
ago we had a Birla-Ambani “shining” and has harvested all the far worse than even Bhopal. But
Report on education in our gains of neo-liberal reforms. The the pressure from US imperialism
country, which advocated rampant vast majority which has lagged has meant that the government is
privatization of education. behind and symbolizes the socio- even willing to legalize murder in
Recently in the meeting of the cultural diversity of the country has the country. The Congress which
Indo-US joint CEO Forum in been completely left out. made promises to the Aam Admi
Washington the demand for in the elections is acting on behalf
opening up education to foreign WHAT IS HAPPENING of the Khas Admi once it has
players was the most important WITH EDUCATION IS recaptured power.
agenda. Today almost all ONLY A REFLECTION OF The neo-liberal policies have
Corporate Houses have private THE LARGER PICTURE also led to rampant corruption in
engineering and medical colleges The last two decades of neo- India. Numerous scams have
and even universities in our liberal reforms in our country have rocked the country in the past few
country. We see billboards of inflicted devastation and misery months. The governments led by
private universities all along the for the common people of the bourgeois parties both at the
road, as if they are some apparel country. More than two lakh centre and in different states have
brand. These institutions charge farmers have committed suicides shown a lackadaisical approach in
huge amounts of money and often in the last ten years or so. Today punishing those who are
provide sub-standard education. people are reeling under the impact plundering our national resources
Similar is the case with the foreign of a massive price-hike especially through corrupt practices.
providers, most of which are in food commodities. But we have
regarded as poor institutions or a government where the Prime UNITE AGAINST
not even recognized in their Minister justifies hikes in price of DIVISIVE FORCES
countries of origin. Petrol, Diesel, LPG and Kerosene While people continue to
The government’s policies in the name of national interest. suffer, reactionary sections
are catering to the interests of Our Agriculture Minister is more continue to spread hatred and
these sections and not the interested in IPL than addressing terror in our society. Terrorism is
students. The government is the problems of a country which growing in the entire South Asian
increasingly withdrawing from the has the highest number of hungry region today, killing thousands of
sphere of education paving way people in the world. “Profits over innocent people every where.
for the private profit-seekers to People” is what explains the Communal forces also continue to
take over. Educational policies are philosophy of the neo-liberal play their nefarious games. The
being designed keeping in mind ideologues which run the country Country has not forgotten the days
what the corporate sector wants today. Recently we saw the of the BJP led NDA government
rather than something which travesty of justice in the judgment when state sponsored pogroms
would help students understand of Bhopal Gas Tragedy where like Gujarat were carried out. It is

Student Struggle 31 February 2011

also important to understand that IN THE NAME OF choose their life partners.
terrorism has no religion or colour TRADITION Everyday we hear news of honour
and is anti-people. The recent Today, we have the dubious killings, where youth are being
findings which have found the distinction of being the pioneer in killed for marrying their partners
involvement of the RSS in terror advanced fields like Information outside their castes. These
attacks in India are a fitting rebuff Technology and having social evils incidents are now unfortunately
to the idea that terrorism is only like untouchability, dowry, female spreading to all parts of the
confined to a particular religion. foeticide, honour killings etc. country be it villages in North
Conflicts based on religion, and Indian states or Metro Cities like
ANARCHIST VIOLENCE IN caste continue to traumatize our Delhi or Mumbai.
THE NAME OF LEFT country from time to time. The SFI has been at the
MUST BE REJECTED Frustrated youth are being forefront of fighting these
Mindless violence and killings directed against each other by struggles. The SFI believes that
by the armed the self-styled regional chauvinists like Raj education is meaningless if we do
Maoists in the name of Left also Thakeray in Mumbai. Religious not struggle against these medieval
need to be condemned in fundamentalist organizations have vices our society is still ridden with.
unequivocal terms. Forces like the developed into terrorist group As future citizens, especially those
Maoists, who claim to fight for the who are killing innocent people in who have been fortunate enough
downtrodden have only India and our neighbouring to get perhaps the best education
generated a cycle of violence and countries. Delhi has been termed in the country, it is our duty to go
counter-violence between them as one of the most unsafe cities beyond our textbooks and adopt
and the security forces, making for women in the world. Sexual a scientific and critical worldview.
poor people mostly tribals cannon harassment is a fact of life for And if we do not agree that the
fodder in between. Most of the women both inside and outside world we live in is a just world, it
people killed by these Maoists are educational institutions. The is necessary that we make our
also poor people and tribals. blames for these crimes are put on efforts to make it more just and
It is important that we isolate the women themselves on the equal, rather than make
all those who support such acts in excuse of their clothes and compromises or develop
the name of Left. character rather than condemning cynicism. Karl Marx had put it
it unequivocally. A country where beautifully when he said,
OUR SOCIETY ONTINUES more than 50% of the population “Philosophers have interpreted the
TO BE A PRISONER TO is in its youth does not even give world in various ways, the point
REGRESSIVE SHACKLES the basic freedom to its youth to however is to change it.”

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Student Struggle 32 February 2011

Ritabrata Banerjee
Four Decades of Study Struggle & Sacrifice
Calls for Strengthening the Battle of Ideas
A NARCHIC forces had
mounted up steep
resistance in the early seventies
when the journey had begun.
Fierce attacks on democratic
rights throughout the country and
unleashing of semi fascist terror
in West Bengal were the
predominant trends of that era.
Successfully combating all
challenges, the Students’
Federation of India had emerged
Student Struggle
to be most dominating voice of the
students across the country in the
last four decades. The four
decades of SFI has witnessed its
active participation on different
issues of the student life and the
society which has shaped its
onward march to be the strongest
and largest representative of the
student community in our country.
From a membership of one lakh
and twenty three thousand during
33
its inception, the organisation
today represents more than forty
four lakhs of students in the
country. And in this eventful
journey, innumerable comrades of
SFI have made supreme sacrifices
in order to hold aloft the banner
of ‘Independence, Democracy,
Socialism”. Commemorating the
glorious ‘Four decades of Study,
Struggle and Sacrifice,” SFI
vowed that the struggle for the
February 2011
alternative, necessary to build a
happy and prosperous India, will
be strengthened amidst all
obstacles.
REMARKABLE
JOURNEY
The year 2010 marks the
40 year of the formation of SFI.
th
The journey from 1970 to 2010
has been a remarkable and
inspiring one for the progressive
student movement. The SFI
central executive committee
decided to take up various
programmes to celebrate and
salute these forty years of Study,
Struggle and Sacrifice. It was
further decided that the
Student Struggle
programmes would highlight the
history and development of the
organisation as well as the
ideological-political thrust which
has been the hallmark of the SFI.
The inaugural programme in
the form of an open rally was held
in Kolkata on September 15.
Netaji Nagar was chosen as the
venue of the meeting. In 1970, the
progressive student leadership of
different states met at Netajinagar
Vidyamandir from June 1-7,
discussing about the formation of
SFI and a preparatory committee
was formed with Biman Basu as
the convenor. Later in the month
of December (27-30), SFI came
into being through the first
34
all India conference held at
Tagore Centenary hall,
Thiruvanathapuram.
The programme was
inaugurated by the founder general
secretary of SFI, Biman Basu by
waving the flag of ‘Independence,
Democracy, and Socialism’.
Former all India president,
Sitaram Yechury was also present
in the programme. The
programme will conclude with an
open rally in Thiruvanathapuram
on January 5, 2011. Programmes
will also be held in all the state
units. The celebrations will not only
highlight the history of the
organization, but also inspire the
members across the country to
February 2011
fight for the ideals of
‘Independence, Democracy and
Socialism,’ which have guided
SFI in this eventful journey.
The rally witnessed a
colourful and jubilant participation
of a large number of students from
the southern districts of the state.
Besides Biman Basu and Sitaram
Yechury, SFI all India president P
K Biju, general secretary
Ritabrata Banerjee, West
Bengal state secretary Kaustav
Chatterjee spoke in the rally. The
rally was presided over by the
state president, Sayandeep Mitra.
Biman Basu in his
inaugural address said Netaji
nagar has been a bastion of the
Left and democratic movement in
the state. The area which was the
abode of the refugees coming from
East Bengal fought against all sorts
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of authority and domination.
People assembled and united
under the red flag fought for their
existence and self esteem. Basu
mentioned that during the semi
fascist terror of the seventies, forty
six activists of the democratic
movement were killed only in the
Jadavpur- Tollygunge area under
which Netajinagar falls. And the
legacy of those supreme sacrifices
still continues. He pointed out that
till date, activists of the student and
democratic movement are being
killed by forces of anarchy and
reaction. After the formation of the
seventh Left Front government in
the state, 515 leaders and activists
of the LF have been killed. And
out of this, 290 have been killed
after the announcement of the
results of last Lok Sabha and till
September 14. He noted that the
35
TMC-Maoist nexus has been the
mastermind behind these killings.
He even apprehended that some
more valuable lives may get
butchered by the TMC-Maoist
mercenaries in the Junglemahal in
the time period when he is
delivering his speech.
Biman Basu told the
gathering that the imperialist forces
like in other parts of the world are
gathering all the anti communist,
anti left forces in the state. They
are active in fabricating false and
imaginative stories in order to
mislead the people. He talked
about the glorious role of the
students in anti imperialist struggles
and urged them to use all their
might in resisting the anti
democratic forces of anarchy in
order to save the state. These
anarchic forces are determined to
February 2011
spread terror to all other parts of
the state. He even mentioned the
way in which outsiders, by might
are trying to capture the elected
students unions in the state, which
testifies beyond doubt that the
TMC does not believe in any
democratic principles. There is a
concerted effort to
snatch the hard earned
democratic rights of the
students in the state. He
urged the students to
play their role in
combating the false
assertions and
campaigns made by
these forces and to
stand firmly by the
democratic movement.
Sitaram Yechury
categorically said that the
responsibility of
tomorrow’s India is on
the students. And they
have to realise what type
of a country is bestowed
upon them as the legacy
and the way in which
they have to develop it.
He said SFI has been
consistently fighting for
education and job for all in a
country where seventy seven out
of hundred students cannot reach
the 12th standard. This is not due
to the lack of our intelligence or
resources. Such conditions have
been created due to the policies
persuaded by the ruling classes.
Yechury mentioned about two
Indias within India. He said that
shining India has given birth to the
largest number of billionaires in
Asia in the last ten years and one
Student Struggle
of them had built a house by union budget which has given a tax
spending four thousand five concession of four lakhs ten
hundred crores of rupees. In that thousand crores of rupees to the
shining India, the total wealth of corporate. This amount would
fifty two persons is equal to the have paved the way for
one fourth GDP of the entire establishing schools in all villages
country. On the other hand of the country. It would have
suffering India is home to 77 per ensured hospital facilities to largest
sections of our
population. But the
centre has refused to
tread this path. If the
government ignoring the
interests of the common
man considers the
welfare of the capitalists
as its priority, then the
people will be on the
roads in the fight for
change in policies.
BATTLE OF IDEAS
Yechury said the
new India which SFI
speaks of needs
alternate policies and the
fight for the alternative
policies is being
spearheaded by the Left.
The Left Front
government is West
Bengal is an example of
cent of the population earning less how the alternate policies can be
than twenty rupees a day. Fifty per implemented. Yechury
cent of the population does not categorically mentioned that the
receive adequate food. India US imperialism does not approve
stands tallest as far as death of this alternative policies and that
through malnutrition is concerned. is precisely the reason they had
78 per cent of the mothers are given directions for weakening of
anaemic. In such circumstances, the Left in India and ousting of the
if a new India is to be constructed Left Front government in West
there has to be a change in the Bengal. Under their instructions,
existing conditions and hence the the reactionary forces ranging
policies need to be altered. from the Maoists to the TMC have
Yechury said the central all joined hands together. He
36 February 2011
 the dangers which such policies
pose to the education sector at
large. He said that militant struggles
are to be waged to pressurise the
government to commit more
resources to the education sector
and stop its dilly dallying on the
long pending demands and
withdraw all plans which seek to
further the agenda of centralisation
and commercialisation of
education.
The rally noted that in the
last one and a half years, five
leading comrades of SFI have
expressed confidence that the different parts of the country. He
been murdered by the reactionary
people of West Bengal will give a mentioned about the
forces. Comrade A B Bijesh (
fitting rebuff to these forces in the historic win SFI has registered in
Trissur district, Kerala), Comrade
upcoming elections. He called Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh
Abhijit Mahato, Comrade Tilak
upon the students to stand by the students’ union elections recently.
Tudu, Comrade Partha Biswas,
LF government and strengthen the He said SFI will wage a militant
Comrade Phoolchand Mahato (
fight for the alternatives. He said struggle throughout the country on
West Midnapore district, West
that the student movement is a the demand of holding students
Bengal) have laid down their lives
theatre where battle of ideas are union elections in all states. He
fighting for the cause of the
performed and SFI from its noted that consistent struggles are
students and the people. The rally
inception has been diligent in to be continued against the anti
saluted the comrades and vowed
strengthening the battle of ideas. student education policies of the
to strengthen the battle of ideas
Yechury said that in the coming central government.
because the undying legacies of
days, the contradictions are going Addressing the rally, SFI
the martyrs have proved that
to increase more and in order to general secretary Ritabrata
enemies can kill our comrades but
strengthen the fight for the Banerjee spoke about the
they cannot kill our ideas. The rally
alternatives, SFI has to play a dominant trends and challenges
pointed out that the ideas of these
leading role. He pointed that the facing the student movement in the
comrades remain to be the
meaning of Independence, last four decades which has
dominant ideas of the majority of
Democracy and Socialism holds shaped the onward march of the
the students in our country.
a greater significance today. He organisation. Speaking about the
The leaders expressed
expressed that in this fight the policies of the central government
that the celebrations will not only
militant students under the banner in the education sector, he
highlight the history of the
of SFI will play a glorious role. mentioned that there is an urgent
organisation but also inspire the
Speaking at the rally, SFI need to expose these intentions of
members and newer sections of
all India president and MP, P K the government which are being
students across the country to fight
Biju said SFI is committed justified in the name of “radical
for the ideals of Independence,
towards the interests of the reforms”. He urged the students
Democracy and Socialism, which
common students and struggles in to wage a thorough and
have guided SFI in this eventful
this regard are being organised in painstaking campaign to explain
journey.
Student Struggle 37 February 2011
 KARNATAKA
Celebration of Four decades of study,
struggle and sacrifice
C elebrations of Four decades
of SFI was kicked off in
Udupi. Flag of SFI was hoisted
marking this historical event. A
colourfull student rally through the
streets of Udupi Preceded this
event. The two day celebrations
were inaugurated by SFI All India
President and MP P.K. Biju. in his
speech he explained legacy and the
growth of SFI. The journey from
1970 to 2010 has been put forth in
front of the gathering. SFI's
membership increased from 1,
23,000 to 4,40,00,00 during this
period. SFI today is the biggest
student organisation in the country.
“Matured theoretical understanding
backed with relentless struggles
right from the formative years is
the sole reason of this growth” he
stressed.
Further telling about the
struggles lead by SFI he said
“Separatist movements created
chaos across the country in 1980s.
Many of our comrades became
martyrs the struggle against these
succession movements. But
nobody could ditter us from our
determination in safegaurding the
unity and diversity of the country,
SFI gave the slogan 'We will let our
bodies cut in to pieces but we will
not allow our country to be divided
Student Struggle
in to pieces'. We continue to run
the struggles with the same spirit
against Imperialism,
Communalism, terrorism and
Naxals.” He cautioned the students
explaining the dangerous phase the
country is going through under
UPA govt”The present govts
priority now is more that on
corruption than on education. They
have opened doors to Foreign
Universities and Institutions in
India which is a great challenge to
self reliance to our country. He
gave a call for widespread struggle
against commercialisation,
privatisation, communalisation and
education policies of UPA Govt.
Speaking on the occasion
SFI former leader and Ex. MLA
Com. G.V.Srirama Reddy
highlighted the important role
student community played in
Freedom Struggle against British
Imperialism. He said the same is
lagging in today’s generation. They
are even ignorant of there own
problems and what is causing to it.
SFI has very important role to play.
Both the central and state Govt are
drowned in corruption. They are
not bothered about issues engulfing
people. He gave a call to student
community to struggle against
corruption along with there own
38
Hulli Umesh
issues. Progressive writer Pakeer
Mohammed Katpadi, SFI State
secretary Ananth Naik and SFI
state secretariet members presided
over the function. SFI State
president H.R. Naveen Kumar
chaired the function.
On January 8th, In the
evening a special programme was
organised. former state secretaries
of SFI Com. S.Y.Gurushanth,
Com. R.Ramakrishna shared their
experiences of their assosciation
with delegates. These were very
inspiring movements for every one
present. Different cultural
programmes were performed by
Delegates and cultural teams. on
9th January SFI All India general
secretary talked on History of
Indian student movement and
challenges before the students. 250
delegates representing 19 districts
participated in this two days
celebrations.
Commemorating 150th birth
anniversary of Rabindranath
Tagore a tele-film was screened to
the delegates. The two days event
filled in delegates with new
inspiration and energy to lead
struggles ahead in defence of
Independence, Democracy,
Socialism and Secularism.
February 2011
 Andhrapradesh
Lal Salaam to Comrades who sacrificed their lives for the
blossoming and growth of new hope.
40 Years Celebrations of SFI
S tudents Federation of India
has a lot of popularity among
the students in India, and this
success is the result of the path laid
by many people through
enumerable struggles and
sacrifices. SFI is marching ahead
in memories of the sacrifices of
martyrs, who laid down their lives
for the movement. These four
decades of SFI celebrations help
to inspire the present cadre to
work earnestly for the organization
through the reminiscences of the
sacrifices and experiences of the
martyrs. Through out Andhra
Pradesh, in 248 centre’s a number
of meetings, conferences, talks,
and seminars were organized and
36,105 students participated.
The inaugural function of 40
years celebrations of SFI was held
in month of October in Sundaraya
Vignyana Kendram, Hyderabad.
Comrade Y. Vekateshwara Rao,
Ex All India President (SFI), Ex
State secretaries B.Venkat, J.
* Secretary, SFI - A.P.
Student Struggle
Venkatesh inaugurated the
function and released the Poster
on this occasion. Speaking of
SFI, Com Y. Vekateshwara Rao
said, SFI is in top most place as it
works for the ideology it believes
in and the n number of struggles it
carries to address the issues of the
students.
The felicitation of Ex district’s
presidents was held at Guntur
district in which Com P.K. Biju
(M.P) All India President SFI, Mr.
Laxman Rao MLC, CPI (M)
District Secretary Ramadevi
participated. A Public meeting was
held at Miryalaguda, Nalgonda
District and it was attended by
Com P.K. Biju. While addressing
the gathering Com P.K. Biju
pointed out that the central
government is cutting down the
allocation of funds for education
and on the other it is drowned in
charges of corruption. In the 2G
spectrum case 1.76 lakh crores of
public exchequer was looted by
the telecom minister Raja which
is higher than 3% spent on
39
K. Chandra Mohan
education and 6% percent spent
on health of the budget. When
asked prime minister Manmohan
Singh says “I do not know
anything about it, what I only know
is Sonia Gandhi and Rahul
Gandhi”. The government
pursuing the tenets of the neo
liberal agenda is commercializing
the education, inviting the foreign
universities and laying down red
carpet to the U.S imperialism. As
a result the capitalists are amassing
the wealth at cost of the common
man.
As part of 4 decade
celebrations a half day session was
held during public meeting in
Khammam district. To which first
president and secretary of the
district attended and gave an
inspiring speech. The All India
general secretary Com Ritabrato
Banerjee was the chief guest for
this meeting and in his speech said
SFI was formed with 1 lakh
membership, and now it grew to
43 lakh members throughout
India. It is the largest student
February 2011
organization in the country and it
has been fighting against the
commercialization, centralization
and communalization of education
since its inception. The valuable
cadre of SFI sacrificed their lives
for upholding the aims of
Independence, democracy and
socialism. And as the students
believed in the work and ideology
of SFI it triumphed with thumping
majority in the students union
elections throughout India. For
example in the recent student
union elections held in Rajasthan,
SFI gave a tough fight to the NSUI
is the affiliated student wing of the
ruling party. In Himachal Pradesh,
Shimla University though the Vice-
Chancellor and ruling party BJP
together tried their best to stab the
victory of SFI by putting the cadre
and leaders of SFI behind the bars,
but SFI won with huge majority
sweeping all the posts.
In Bengal Maoists, and
Trinamool congress ganged up and
heinously killed the cadre of SFI
(Abhijit Mahato, Tilak Tudu,
Partha Biswas, Fulchand Mahato
and swapan Koley). Taking the
sacrifices of these comrades as
inspiration we have to follow their
footsteps and fight until we reach
our goals. They can only kill the
individuals but not the ideology.
Com Ritabrato Banerjee ended his
speech inspiring the cadre to work
with rejuvenated spirits.
For the programme held in
Kurnool district Ex MLA Gafoor
participated and was nostalgic of
the days he worked in SFI.
In the public gathering held
in Jawahar Bharati College,
Student Struggle
Kavali, Nellore district, Com B.V.
Raghavulu CPI (M) Politburo
member, and State Secretary A.P,
Com Punyavathi central
committee member A.P, and Ex
SFI leaders attended and
delivered speech. Com Raghavulu
addressing the gathering said SFI
cadres excel in studies and are
appreciated for their endeavors,
he remembered his days in
Jawahar Bharati College. And
others too gave enriching
speeches.
On the occasion of 40 years
celebrations of SFI, cricket
competition was held in Tirupati.
35 teams from various engineering
colleges took part. Com B.V.
Ragahvulu started the tournament.
In the public meeting held in the
month of February Chukka
Ramaiah MLC, appreciated the
struggles of SFI towards
safeguarding the interests of public
education. Ex SFI leader
Nagaraju, CPI (M) district
secretary Kumar Reddy also
attended the pubic meeting.
For the meeting held in
Vishakapatnam Com. Punyavathi,
Comrades C.H. Narasingha Rao,
Lokanadam, Ganga Rao attended
and delivered speeches. They
remembered how SFI worked
underground during the days of
emergency and atrocities were
carried out on SFI cadres by the
police. And explained how the
cadre stood firm against the
suppression by the police. SFI
supported the trade union
movements and fought hard to
strengthen them. While addressing
40
the gathering Com. Punyavathi said
woman cadres should be
encouraged to take part actively
breaking the irrational barriers laid
by the society. Remembering her
days in SFI as an activist, she
talked about less participation of
girls and how she used to visit
hostels in order to encourage new
girls to become a part of SFI.
They organized study circles
internally in order to inspire them
and those study circles were very
educative. And she also gave a call
to younger generation to know
about the local issues and oppose
the neo-liberal government
policies towards education.
The district committee of
Ranga Reddy district organized a
public meeting in Ibhrahimpatnam
with 3000 thousand students. K.
Nageshwara Rao MLC (Hyd)
addressed the gathering and spoke
on Changes and Challenges in
Higher education.
In various other places SFI
has organized General body
meetings, meetings, college
general body meetings, and public
gatherings. During those meetings
martyrs and their sacrifices were
commemorated. The SFI state
committee campaigned for these
40 years celebrations by bringing
out 15,000 posters. And this
occasion of SFI’s 40 years
celebrations helped a lot in
educating the cadre, and
commemorating valuable
sacrifices of martyrs and
inspiration to move forward with
much vigor and rejuvenated spirits
for the struggles ahead.
February 2011
 Tamilnadu
Tamilnadu SFI Conference Calls for
Militant Struggles
O PENING with a huge
student procession and an
impressive public meeting, the
22nd state conference of the
Tamilnadu unit of Students’
Federation of India (SFI) resolved
to take forward its resolute fight
against the aggressive
commercialisation of education in
the state. The three-day
conference took place at
Nagarcoil, headquarters of
Kanniyakumari district, on August
13-15. The district is a stronghold
of the SFI.
On August 13 evening,
nearly 5000 boys and girls,
holding aloft the white flag of the
SFI and chanting slogans, came
out in an inspiring procession
Student Struggle
through the town. The procession
culminated in a public meeting
which the education minister of
Kerala and former SFI leader, M
A Baby, CITU state general
secretary A Soundararajan, SFI
president P K Biju, joint secretary
G Selva and other state leaders
addressed.
Earlier, Kanakaraj received
the SFI flag which had been
brought from the V K Puram
memorial of martyr Comrade
Kumar. Central executive
committee member Jasmine
Vinoja hoisted the flag. G Selva
received the torch which had been
brought from the memorial of
martyrs Somu and Sembu in
Madurai.
41
S P Rajendran
FUNDAMENTAL
CHANGES NEEDED
On August 14, the delegates
session of the conference started
with an inaugural address by
Professor V K Ramachandran,
member of the Planning Board of
West Bengal. He criticised the
wrong policies of the country’s
rulers who have given the nation a
high rate of illiteracy even after 63
years of independence. He quoted
the comments of veteran
communist leader Comrade P
Sundarayya that “if there is no
fundamental change in society, we
will not able to provide minimum
10 years education for children
even after 50 years.” According
to the National Family Health
February 2011

Survey 2005, the median number
of schooling years for men in rural
India was only 2; for women, it
was only 0; for Dalits also, it was
0. If the words of Comrade
Sundarayya have come true, it is
because there were no
fundamental changes in the
society, Professor V K
Ramachandran added. He
appealed the student community
to take part in the struggle for
social change and said, “If you are
part of the struggle for social
change, it means you are
participating in the struggle against
class oppression; caste
oppression and gender
oppression.” He also told the
students that only the Left
movement in India is waging a
tireless fight against class, caste,
gender and other forms of
oppression.
The conference discussed the
work report and organisational
report placed by K Kanagaraj,
state secretary of the SFI, which
detailed the continuous struggles
by the organisation in the state,
Student Struggle
Discussing the organisation’s
strengths in Tamilnadu, the
conference noted that it has
1,56,917 members in the state,
among whom 1,06,351 are school
students. However, the delegates
also analysed the weaknesses and
charted out measures to further
strengthen the organisation.
The conference decided to
hold massive demonstrations all
over the state on September 1 to
press its demands, including that
of proper implementation of the
common school education
particularly for the cause of programme.
common school education, for A five-member committee
educational loans and scholarship headed by state SFI president N
for the poor students, and other Rejees Kumar presided over the
pro-education causes. It was conference. Reception committee
evident that it was only due to the chairman and former MP, A V
powerful struggle of SFI that the Bellarmine, welcomed the
DMK government has begun the delegates and others while DYFI
implementation of common school state secretary S Kannan, AISF
education programme from this state secretary Venkatraman and
year. For this cause, one may note, the leaders of teachers' movement
SFI cadres faced cruel attacks of greeted the conference. All India
the police and the government tried joint secretary G Selva addressed
to crush their movement with the valedictory session. D Samraj
brutality. proposed the vote of thanks.
42 February 2011
 The conference elected a 78
member state committee, with K
S Kanakaraj as president and J
Rajmohan as secretary. R Stalin,
Karikalan, Uchi Makali,
Dhanushan and Jasmine Vinoja
were elected vice presidents and
Kumar, Samraj, Mariappan,
Balachanra Bose and Josbin Viji
are the joint secretaries.
TWIN ATTACKS
As a part of the conference,
a special convention was held on
August 15. SFI general secretary
Ritabrata Banerjee and former
MUTA president Professor V
Ponraj delivered special
addresses at the convention.
In his address, Ritabrata
Banerjee warned that the UPA II,
which does not even have a
Common Minimum Programme,
has launched a renewed offensive
in the field of education. This
involves the twin attacks of
commercialisation and
centralisation of education. The
UPA government not only seeks
Student Struggle
to push for increased
commercialisation and opening up
of the education sector to foreign
players; it also aims at
fundamentally changing the
structure of education sector in
the country. To put it in simple
terms, the thrust is on
fundamentally curbing the
democratic values in the realm of
education policy and make it
subservient to the whims and
fancies of the market bosses, he
added.
After the UPA II assumed
office in May 2009, the minister
for human resource development
has declared the aggressive neo-
liberal agenda of his ministry,
arousing strong protests from the
stakeholders and various state
governments. Several legislations
have been introduced in
parliament, including the Foreign
Educational Institutions Bill which
seeks to invite FDI in education.
The Right to Education Act has
been passed without committing
additional funds to the state
governments. Some other
43
legislations are in the offing. The
UPA government's agenda for
education sector in going to lead
to a) deregulation and
centralisation of education b)
taking policy issues outside the
purview of the parliament/
legislature and elected
representatives and c)
privatisation and
commercialisation of education.
All this will have far reaching
consequences, the speaker
pointed out.
The most dangerous step in
this direction is the proposed
NCHER and HER draft bills
which have been brought by the
government. The defining feature
of these bills are that they would
take away all rights of policy and
decision making in education from
democratically elected bodies like
the parliament and state
legislatures, and give sweeping
powers to a seven member body.
Such steps can also be seen in the
field of school education where
attempts are being made to
February 2011
 facing our education system today.
It is important to understand
that the driving motive behind these
measures is not an expansion of
the system. The primary motive is
to cater to the needs of the market
and undermine the progressive
content of education in the
country. To take an example, the
HRD minister recently gave a
statement stressing the need for
having identical syllabi for science
and commerce streams at the
higher secondary level across all
undermine the autonomy of state implementation of total literacy
states. But one might ask: why is
boards by talks of uniform syllabi and continuing education
there no felt need to include
and curricula. All this is being done programmes. Expenditure on
humanities or social sciences as
in the name of "reforming and education must be raised to at
well? The answer is clear. Science
rejuvenating" the education sector least six per cent of the GDP.
and commerce streams have a
in the country and is being Quantum of the central financial
direct relation to the needs of the
presented as a drastic reform of support to the states should be
market today. The ruling elite in
the otherwise inefficient education enhanced substantially.
our country needs supply of
system prevailing in the country.
skilled labour force to compete in
While the government is not LACK OF
the world market. That is not the
showing any inclination to increase ACCOUNTABILITY
case with social sciences or liberal
the resource allocation for the Banerjee pointed out that in
arts, which in fact pose a challenge
education sector, it wants to a country like ours which is
to the imperialist thinktanks which
acquire all powers to implement marked by large diversities,
would want to reinterpret our
its own all-size-fit policies. This is education cannot be
history in a particular manner.
yet another replication of the neo- straitjacketed. We require a
There is thus an urgent need
liberal paradigm which tries to participatory, democratic attitude
to understand the threat these
seek legitimacy for most to improve the sorry state of
policies pose to our society. The
undemocratic and regressive affairs which prevail today. It is
speaker therefore appealed to the
proposals in the name of reforming absurd to think that some
student community to wage
the delivery mechanism. Banerjee "enlightened" individuals sitting in
militant struggles and press the
put forward the view that the goals Delhi can decide what policies
government to commit more
of expansion, equity and should be adopted to address the
resources to the education sector
excellence in education at all levels problems of providing quality
and withdraw all plans to further
are mutually complementary and education to students in a remote
the agenda of its centralisation and
should be harmoniously pursued village in the North East or in a
commercialisation.
through greater public investment big city slum. It is also meaningless
At the convention, Ritabrata
and public control over education. to argue that a clique of some
Banerjee inaugurated a new
He demanded that adequate individuals, with no accountability
website of the Tamilnadu SFI,
provision should be made by the to the common people, would get
www.sfitamilnadu.org.
central government for time bound rid of the problems which are

Student Struggle 44 February 2011