“If standing up to the RSS makes us goons, then yes we are proud to be goons,” : M Sivaprasad

Thiruvananthapuram: SFI State President M Sivaprasad declared that if protesting against the RSS makes someone a goon, then SFI activists fully embrace that label. He was responding to Opposition Leader V D Satheesan, who had earlier dismissed the SFI’s agitation as hooliganism. “Satheesan, who seeks power by appeasing the RSS, calls us goons for raising our voice against its influence. We wear that label with pride,” Sivaprasad said.

He was speaking after greeting the SFI's Raj Bhavan march, held against the Sangh Parivar’s attempts to saffronise Kerala’s universities. During his speech, Sivaprasad held up a photograph of V D Satheesan lighting a ceremonial lamp in front of a portrait of Golwalkar, one of RSS''s founding ideologues. “By doing so, Satheesan makes clear where his ideological loyalty lies,” he added.

Sivaprasad reminded that earlier it was Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan who labelled SFI activists as goons. “Then and now, our struggle remains the same to defend secular education. We won’t retreat even an inch from that goal,” he said.

He asserted that RSS symbols stand in direct opposition to secularism and that the SFI’s protest is firmly rooted in the defence of that ideal. The student body, he said, would resist Vice Chancellors appointed with Sangh backing. “Kerala is a bastion of secularism. But Satheesan, in his eagerness for the Chief Minister’s chair, has chosen to kneel before the RSS. That will not go unchallenged,” he warned.

Sivaprasad also criticised the KSU, the Congress- affiliated student wing, for their silence. “If they had the courage to call out the Governor’s RSS links in their posters, we would have respected them. But those who can’t even do that have no right to talk about secularism,” he said.

Concluding his remarks, he declared, “The SFI is strong enough to overcome any challenge. Our struggle will move forward with historic force. Let the police understand when students from ordinary families rise, they can topple barricades. This fight is against the RSS and for the soul of secular education in Kerala.”