What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
SFI state secretary was declared passed for an examination he has not appeared. A former leader forged documents to prepare a fake experience certificate to work as a guest lecturer
ERNAKULAM, KERALA: Favouring student leaders who enjoy political patronage to clear examinations at the behest of the ruling party in the state is not new in the country.
However, a recent incident where SFI (Student Federation of India) state secretary PM Arsho was declared ‘passed’ for an examination he has not appeared for and another incident where a former SFI leader, K Vidya, forged documents to prepare a fake experience certificate and worked as a guest lecturer, has not just shocked everyone but has also opened Pandora’s Box with more such ‘special cases’ being revealed by the opposition and a section of educational activists.
Maharajas College, the state-run college, had to withdraw the list of results that showed SFI state general secretary Arsho PM as having “passed” the third-semester examination of the post-graduate programme in Archaeology and Material Studies after Kerala Students Union, the student wing of the Congress, raised a furore and questioned the act by the college.
After Arsho told the media that he did not write any of the four papers in the semester examination, the college published a new list, marking him as “failed”. The semester exam was held in December 2022 and the results were published in March 2023.
In yet another case of forgery and cheating, the Kochi city police registered a case against a former student of Maharaja’s College for allegedly forging a document to show that she had worked as a guest lecturer at the college.
The accused, K Vidya, who had studied a postgraduate programme in Malayalam at the college, had allegedly forged the experience certificate to apply for the job of a guest lecturer at Attappadi Government College in Palakkad district.
Academicians, opposition leaders and student activists slammed the state government and the SFI for trying to influence the examination centre and the college authorities to meddle with the results and hence ensure that the state secretary, PM Arsho, was allowed to clear the examination in which he has not appeared.
Opposition leader VD Satheeshan came down heavily on higher education minister R Bindu, accusing her of influencing the investigation.
“It should be noted that SFI students with less than two per cent attendance were allowed to write the exams. Also, it was Arsho who helped his colleague Vidya to secure a fake experience certificate so that she could secure a PhD admission at Kalady University”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Ernakulum police have registered an FIR arraigning five persons as accused in the case. The accused include Vinod Kumar, a former coordinator at Maharaja’s College; VS Joy, principal at Maharaja’s College; Alosious Xavier, KSU state president; Fazil CA, a student of BA Political Science at Maharaja’s College and Akhila Nandakumar, a television journalist.
As per the FIR registered on June 6, the accused hatched a conspiracy with the intention to defame and malign the image of the complainant, PM Arsho, SFI state secretary, in public. The accused propagated a fake mark list on social media and thereby maligned the image of the complainant and SFI before the public.
The organisation, which has a strong presence across all government educational institutions in the state, has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The members of the student wing have been accused of forgery, cheating and violence.
The ruling CPI(M) leaders have issued strict warnings to its student wing activists following such reports, as the left party is fighting an array of accusations at the government level from the opposition Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
