Student faction withdraws support to ongoing movement

EOI, Gangtok, 25 Jul 2014: A small section of students of the Sikkim Government College today announced withdrawal of support to the ongoing students’ movement against the lathicharge incident on students on July 15 and 16. Representatives of the students’ faction announced their stand during a press conference held at the Press Club of Sikkim.

 “We feel sad with the lathicharge incident, but nonetheless we appeal to all students to suspend protests as our main demand for a fee rollback has been addressed,” said Govind Prasad Sharma, one of the representatives.

He further said, “We are from a peace loving state and we don’t want any more violence here on the pretext of undelivered justice as it is hampering our studies by a great degree.”

“We have full faith in the one-man inquiry committee and feel we will get justice soon. We would like to ask our friends to wait patiently for the report’s findings. Hence for the time being, we want our college to re-open as the closure is badly affecting our studies,” said Amit Rai, another representative present at the press conference.

The students expressed their gratitude towards Chief Minister Pawan Chamling for declaring free education in the state up to the college level. They also urged those students still agitating to rejoin classes in their respective institutions August 1 onwards.

On July 14, thousands of students from various government colleges across the state gathered in Gangtok to protest against the recent fee increase, which was at least four times the existing amount. Demanding an immediate rollback, which had been raised from Rs321 to a stupefying Rs1,200 by the HRD ministry, the students staged a blockade outside the Sikkim Government College. Police arrived at the spot and lathicharged the students under the command of SP East Manoj Tiwari leaving a number of girls and boys injured.

The tension escalated further the next day when the police once again resorted to lathicharge after infuriated students blocked NH-10 demanding an apology from Tiwari to for ordering the lathicharge.

To calm nerves that had reached bursting point, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling made a prudent move by announcing a 100 per cent waiver on fees up to the college level as also full refunds to those who had already paid. The move has pacified some sections of the student fraternity, but the majority is continuing the protest as they say they will not smoke from the same pot unless Tiwari and the state government apologies unconditionally in public.