Despite their opposition based on ideology, both the political Right and the political Left possess similar behaviour, observes Shyam G Menon.
Close to mid-June 2023, the daily evening discussion on Asianet News caught fire.
The preceding days had been an interesting period for the state's news media, especially television, which thrives on a diet of breaking news, analysis and discussion.
At its heart was the story about K Vidya, a former leader of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist. The CPI-M heads the Left Democratic Front currently ruling Kerala.
While applying for a job interview for the post of guest lecturer at the RGM Government College in Attappaday, Palakkad, Vidya submitted an experience certificate that evoked the suspicion of college authorities.
They sent the certificate to the principal of Kochi's Maharaja's College (the document claimed Vidya had worked at the institution as guest lecturer) for verification.
Vidya had used the same certificate to secure work at a college in Kasaragod earlier.
Following a FIR (First Information Report) filed against her for the certificate used, the Mathrubhumi newspaper reported on June 11 that Vidya had approached the high court seeking anticipatory bail.
'In her bail petition, Vidya reportedly claimed her innocence and denied any wrongdoing,' the report said.
Around the same time as this story broke, another controversy brewed.
The state secretary of the SFI, P M Arsho was alleged in the media as having passed his exams at Maharaja's College without appearing for them.
In its summary of June 9 (wherein both the Vidya and Arsho stories were mentioned), The News Minute said the college authorities attributed the situation to a software glitch at the end of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Both these incidents -- the truth in the charges raised is subject to investigation and what the authorities eventually find out -- quickly became major news in Kerala.
The single biggest cause for these developments capturing the public's attention was the politics that has infected Kerala's college campuses for decades.
Student politics here has a history of deep association with mainstream politics along with a capacity for violence.
Even as Malayali students work hard, earn good marks and find careers outside the state for want of meaningful opportunities at home, the campus reality in which their education is stuck, has altered little.
Aggressive student politics has remained a recurrent feature in Kerala and the same finds its place regularly in the media's day-to-day news reporting.
The onus of this state of affairs sits squarely on the student political outfits -- the SFI, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) of the BJP and Kerala Students Union (KSU) of the Congress; there are other organisations too, but these are the main ones -- and their masters, the mainstream political parties.
Student politics plays a critical role in any democracy. However, it is unlikely that a blatant defence of the prevailing state of affairs by the main political parties will find empathy with Malayali parents, for over the years legions of parents (and students) have got fed up of Kerala's universities (and colleges therein) tarnished by pointless politics, including the sort inspired by off-site controllers.
In May 2023 itself, days before the controversy around Vidya erupted, the SFI had been in the news at Christian College, Kattakada, for a freshly elected college union councillor replaced post-elections by a locally favoured SFI leader.
As per media reports, the Kerala University filed a case against the then college principal and the favoured SFI leader; it also imposed a fine on the college.
Student politics alone is not to be blamed for denting the image of Kerala's educational system.
If you speak to those of my generation, there will be memories of graduation certificates delayed, answer sheets gone missing and exam schedules upset due to agitations by university staff.
In other words, visible expression of education being a negotiable priority despite the state taking pride in the academic distinction of its inhabitants.
To their credit, some of the state's colleges and universities have improved in terms of infrastructure and rating as institutions of learning. But the politically charged atmosphere they reside in, has remained a Damocles Sword.
In June 2023, the two latest incidents involving allegations against persons associated with the SFI, sufficed to tap straight into the already existing disillusionment with campus politics in Kerala and become ambassador at large for the rot in the system.
That both the incidents bore link to a single college fuelled the suspicion of student organisations and mainstream political parties acting in concert, and both taking advantage of pliable administrations.
Plus, in this given instance, both (student outfit and its mainstream political master) betraying a shared arrogance because they belonged to the ruling dispensation.
Then something unexpected, happened.
Arsho, the SFI state secretary, lodged a police complaint alleging a conspiracy to defame him.
The complaint featured Asianet's chief reporter in Kochi as the fifth accused.
Many people, particularly journalists, were shocked to see the police accepting the accusation as such.
The report in question -- wherein a functionary of the KSU (political foe of the SFI) was seen displaying alleged evidence (on his phone) of Arsho clearing his exams with no marks recorded against his name -- was an instance of live telecast.
Likely therefore, it was tad dramatic in how it was presented.
The audio of the clip had the reporter telling viewers that the newsbreak was based on an allegation.
The complaint since filed with the police wasn't the first time, Asianet was at the receiving end of actions by the political Left.
On March 3, 2023, SFI members had barged into the Kochi office of Asianet News to protest against a news report on drug abuse and assault on minors, which the channel had telecast in November 2022.
Asianet News is currently owned by BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is a minister of state in the central government headed by Narendra Modi (source: June 2023 report in The Telegraph and a July 2021 report in exchange4media.com).
It has enjoyed a prickly relationship with the LDF. What is overlooked here is that Asianet occupies an important place in Kerala's media history as the first Malayalam satellite news channel.
It is the dominant player in that space with a track record of taking a critical view of most governments in power (in some ways, it encapsulates how the average Malayali likes media to be. Notwithstanding the ascent of hagiography in Modi's India and Pinarayi Vijayan's Kerala, criticism and critical views have always been a part of overall media attitude in Kerala).
At the same time, it suffers from television's sectoral weakness -- that of associating faces with truth and critical views, which over time acquires the tenor of durbars manufacturing criticism and consent.
In politics, where ruling dispensations wish to have one durbar and no other, alternative centres of debate -- that too centres recalled through faces other than those empathetic to the ruling dispensation -- are known to irritate.
Every ruling party likes its writ to run, no questions asked.
On June 12, The Telegraph in its report titled 'Saffron and red blend well in browbeating media,' combined a recent instance of questionable behaviour towards the media by Smriti Irani, BJP leader and Union minister; and the developments in Kerala, to underscore the long-known truth that despite their opposition based on ideology, both the political Right and the political Left possess similar behaviour.
On June 12, television news in Kerala showed Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CP-M, dodging questions on the charges filed against Asianet's reporter.
On June 14, The Hindu reported CPI-M politburo member, Prakash Karat, saying that the government would not register a case merely for criticising someone and there may be some other reason behind the case filed against the Asianet reporter.
Adept at managing optics, India's political Right has in the past leveraged media chatter to swing public gaze away from emergent hotspots.
On May 31, the Deccan Herald reported that the Centre had formally approved Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's trip to the US and Cuba spanning June 8-18.
PTI in its report of June 8 on the chief minister leaving for the US, noted: 'The Opposition Congress has contended that it was "embarrassing" for the state that amounts ranging from USD 25,000 to USD 100,000 was being charged as part of the "offer" to sit or stand close to the Kerala chief minister during the Loka Kerala Sabha, a Non-resident Keralites' convention, which will be held in New York on June 9, 10 and 11.'
In late May-early June, the proximity-based charges mentioned above, had been cause for controversy because a chief minister represents the state and not a party.
This made the proposed exercise different from any of the political fund raisers regularly reported in the US.
Further in Kerala, there were those who didn't think highly of the Loka Kerala Sabha for reasons similar to why sections of Indians didn't warm up to the BJP lavishing attention on Non-Resident Indians.
Given the inequality in income between NRIs and swathes of India's resident electorate, there was always the fear that political loyalties may swing more and more to the wealthy.
By June 12, media chatter in Kerala had shifted to Vidya, Arsho, SFI and the state police's curious choice of charging a journalist for seemingly no fault except carrying out her professional duties. New York and Havana felt distant.
On June 21, K Vidya was taken into custody.
Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
