28. Naxals in REC Calicut

It was on June 12^th, 1975 that the High Court at Allahabad ruled that the election of Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India was void as her election agent who was a government servant used government machinery for her election campaign. Even though Justice.V.R.Krishn Iyer, Supreme court judge, with an interim stay, allowed her  to continue as PM  without salary as an MP, she preferred to get a state of emergency declared  by the President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and assumed all powers  of the Parliament on her own. She went to put several opposition leaders  in  jail.The conditions in R E C Calicut in this period as stated earlier were very bad. Even before this, there were isolated cases of Naxalbari  attacks in different  parts of Kerala. Being the only institution in Kerala where large number of students from the North East and West Bengal study, it was suspected that some Naxalites may be hiding in the REC hostels. Local police had made some enquiries but they could not find anything significant.

For the information of readers of the younger generation, it is necessary to introduce the Naxalbari movement. Naxalbaari is a revenue block in Siliguri district of West Bengal. Naxalite movement was an armed revolution spearheaded by the tribal farmers of Naxalbari which was  called Naxalbari movement.  The Communist Party of India was slowly moving away from the armed revolution line in the original Communism as the party started enjoying the benefits of power starting with formation of governments in West Bengal, certain party members got disillusioned and advocated a path of armed rebellion. It was named a Marxist - Leninist party and its leaders were Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. Communist Party came to power in West Bengal in 1967 and this movement started in 1969 with an armed rebellion by the tribals  in Naxalbari. The CPI government in West Bengal thought this to be a simple law and order problem and did not recognise the ideological support this group received. They ignored it to be trivial and hoped it will vanish soon. However, the movement got  strength with more and more followers and it spread to other states where Communist Party had some support like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

In Kerala, the activities of the Naxalite movement was confined to the Northern districts of Kannur and Wayanad. Naxal followers  were involved in some arson and murder in Pulpally(1968), Kuttiyadi(1969) and Thirunelli (1970). Kunnikkal Narayanan, Mandakini, Philip M Prasad, T.V.Appu, Varghese etc were the  Naxal leaders. It was quite natural that police thought some students or their friends from West Bengal   may be residing in REC hostels. Orders came from the top to identify these trouble makers and hand them over to the police. A few senior officers visited REC Hostels and found that the hostel is almost an open book where any one, including outsiders could live for months together without any one knowing about it. They insisted that more restrictions should be imposed on the inmates of the hostel, otherwise, they will recommend closure of the college indefinitely.

In reality, what the police officers stated was true. The hostels were really an open book. A student can live in any hostel, can take food from any hostel mess, can enter the hostel anytime night or day etc.  If someone enters the door on the West side of A hostel and moves through the corridors of A, B, and C hostels in that order, they could reach Kattangal  from D hostel gate  or through E hostel  without anyone asking anything. Watchmen were too few in number and even those who were posted never bothered to check who is moving around in these hostels. Many of them were the local villagers knowing nothing about security measures. A list of inmates were supposed to be available in the hostel office but there was no way to check someone other than bona fide students  is staying in some of the hostel rooms. The officers were careful to note these and insisted that entry to each hostel should be at a single point and a watchman is to be posted round the clock at the entry point. They insisted that entry to the hostels should not be allowed after 830PM and attendance (roll call) has to be taken every day at 9 PM and all students should be in their own rooms afterwards. They wanted the authorities to ensure that no unauthorised persons other than regular students live in the hostel rooms. The Calicut Mokkam  main road passing through the centre of the campus  has made  any form of security  impossible.

During  this period, Dr.P.S.Srinivasan, Professor EE Department was the Chief  Warden of the hostels and he had  selected  many of the wardens from our own department and I was one among them. I was assigned the E hostel.  Prof. Srinivasan and our team had  found out that there were  several students  in the hostel  taking food from the mess even when they had arrear mess bill  to pay of the order  of several  thousands of rupees. We had put some restrictions that unless one clears the dues till the end of the previous month, they will not be allowed to take food from any of the messes. Entry to the mess was possible only with written permission from the Chief Warden after clearing the dues. Many defaulters were obviously  not happy and were keeping their  resentment in their mind even though they could not find an excuse  for  not paying the dues  for the food they have eaten.

The additional restrictions to be imposed as per orders from the police are to be seen in this context.  The   multiple entry points in all hostels including the open grill on the first floor were closed with bricks and cement mortar. Only the central gate was the entry point and a watchman was posted round the clock at this point. Notices were circulated insisting that all inmates should be in their rooms  before 9 PM. Guests  were not allowed to go to the rooms of the hostel inmates, they could talk in the  guest room provided for the purpose.  It was also informed that roll call will be taken soon. Even though notice was circulated, we were not sure about how the students will react to these restrictions hitherto unheard of.

Anyway, we decided we will try to take roll call starting with the E hostel. We were expecting some protest but did not know how it will be manifested. All the wardens and the chief warden together reached the E hostel at 845 PM. As we were about to step into the hostel, power went off in all the rooms and the corridors. Obviously, this was deliberately done as the main switch was put off. As it was not safe to enter the hostel in the darkness and no useful purpose could be served, we moved to the next hostel. There again same thing happened. As we were moving to the next hostel, a group of students numbering a few hundreds were following us at a distance. As we were coming down from each hostel, the number of students swelled and by the time we reached the last one A hostel, nearly 500 – 600 students were behind us. By the time we started moving away from the A hostel abandoning the mission, a few stones were thrown at us, one or two of us received it on our shoulders. The students were virtually chasing us out of the hostel and seemed to be interested only  in  frightening us,  not in any way  injuring us.

AS soon as we came out of the hostel and reached the quarters of the Chief Warden on the main road, we called the police and a truck load of policemen came within about 30 minutes. Even before the police came, the gathered students had dispersed and had gone back to their respective rooms. No untoward incidents took place that night.  Even though we  dropped the   idea of taking a roll call, the atmosphere  in the hostels were far from being  normal. It is under these circumstances that the developments that led to the tragic death of our dear student Rajan  took place.(which will  be   the next )