At the forefront of those protests at numerous universities and in numerous elements of the stateparticularly Kolkata, has been the CPM’s pupil wing, Students Federation of India (SFI), which has been staunchly demanding justice for Anis’s household.
According to his household, Anis was killed on February 18 evening after being allegedly thrown off the second flooring of his residence by 4 unidentified individuals in Howrah district’s Sarada Dakshin Khan Para village. His father Salem Khan has alleged that one of many accused was “in police uniform” and the others in civil volunteers’ uniform.
The Bengal authorities suspended three policemen for “negligence of duty”.They have been on obligation at Howrah’s Amta police station on February 18 evening. The authorities additionally arrange a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe Anis’s loss of life, which has arrested two individualshomeguard Kashinath Bera and civic volunteer Pritam Bhattacharya, within the case.
Anis’s household has, nonetheless, caught to its demand for a CBI probe into his killing, along with his father sustaining they couldn’t belief the state police which was allegedly answerable for his loss of life.
A pupil chief of the Kolkata-based Aliah University, Anis had been with the ISF during the last two years, though he had earlier been related to Chhatra Parishad, the Congress’s pupil wing, and numerous Left pupil our bodies just like the AISA (All India Students Association) and the AISF (All India Student Federation).
SFI members in a rally demanding justice for Anis Khan in Kolkata. (Express Photo: Partha Paul)
Backing the calls for of the Anis household for a CBI inquiry and arrest of the accused, the SFI activists hit the streets on 19 February together with college students of Alia University,
Since then, the SFI has been holding protests on the difficulty on daily basis, on the streets in addition to in college campuses throughout the state, forming human chains, placing up highway blockades and even doing “gherao” of police stations.
The SFI management has made it clear that they’ll proceed their marketing campaign till the important thing culprits behind Anis’s loss of life are arrested. An SFI state committee chief mentioned, “Behind Anis’s killing was a giant political conspiracy. We are demanding arrest of its major culprits. Police and administration are attempting to dilute the case by arresting solely a house guard and a civic volunteer.”
The CPIM has been carefully monitoring the SFI’s agitation within the Anis loss of life case, hoping it will rejuvenate the rank and file of the mum or dad social gathering, which has now been relegated to the margins of Bengal politics.
After ruling Bengal for 34 years constantly, the CPM-led Left Front was ousted from energy by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) within the 2011 Assembly elections. The CPM has been on a downward slide since then, failing to win a single seat within the 2021 Assembly polls, with its vote share plunging from over 30% in 2011 to 7% in 2021.
Since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in early 2020, the SFI has, nonetheless, been making its mark by endeavor numerous packages to offer aid to affected individuals, constituting a bunch of “red volunteers” for the aim.
According to CPM sources, the variety of the SFI’s crimson volunteers elevated even after the social gathering’s disastrous efficiency within the 2021 polls, rising from about 5,000 to 30,000 in Kolkata and from about 40,000 to 1.20 lakh in Bengal in June final 12 months.
“These crimson volunteers labored relentlessly through the Covid interval, offering oxygen cylinders, masks, oximeters, meals, medicines and hand sanitisers and so forth.
to affected individuals, shifting sufferers to hospitals. Many of them obtained contaminated themselves however didn’t cease their aid work,” mentioned an SFI chief.
After taking on the reins of Bengal in 2011, the TMC authorities progressively stopped pupil union elections in faculties, which blocked the entry of latest activists into the SFI and different Left pupil our bodies. The emergence of crimson volunteers, nonetheless, restarted the inflow of contemporary members and new leaders into the SFI and, by extension, the CPM.
Acknowledging the work of those younger SFI members through the Covid waves, the CPM fielded a lot of them as its candidates within the latest state civic polls.
Although the TMC swept all 4 municipal firms within the February 12 civic polls with 61% votes, the Left Front pushed the BJP to the third place by way of vote share, garnering 16.75% as in opposition to the principal Opposition BJP’s 14.5 per cent votes.
A senior CPM chief mentioned, “Our aim was to bring new and young faces to the fore, continuing to give them space and tickets in various recent elections. The Anis Khan issue may further galvanise the SFI and speed up this process.”
A senior CPM chief mentioned, “Our party’s student wing has always provided us with our future leaders. From Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Biman Bose, Anil Biswas, and Subhash Chakraborty to current leaders like Md. Salim, Sujan Chakraborty, and Samik Lahiri – all of them have come from students movement.”
He additionally mentioned, “The Anis Khan case gave Left organisations a key opportunity to fight against TMC, with BJP being absent from it. That also helped SFI.”
However, TMC’s pupil wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, claimed that the Anis case wouldn’t give fillip to the SFI, with its state chief Trinankur Bhattacharya saying, “They don’t have any organization in colleges and universities. They are trying to get mileage through Anis’s death, but we don’t think this will benefit them.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
