Kiss of Love campaign: More ‘hugs’ at Maharaja’s college
Despite warning by college principal, students went ahead with the programme
Kochi: The Maharaja’s College here witnessed more ‘hugs’ on Monday as student unions like the Students Federation of India and the All India Students Federation protested against the suspension of 10 students by the college management for holding the ‘Hug of Love’ event on Friday last.
Despite warning by college principal T.V. Francy, the students went ahead with the programme and hugged openly to express solidarity with the recently-held Kiss of Love (KOL) campaign. Ten students, including six girls, were suspended then.
On Monday noon, the student unions took out a protest rally and conducted a sit-in before the principal’s room. Though the union leaders held parleys with the college management, the principal was not ready to revoke the suspension. The irked students, numbering around 50, marched to the centre circle of the college shouting slogans and openly hugged each other, daring the principal to suspend them too.
“The principal told us he belonged to the old generation and could not tolerate such events. We held the event in protest against the moral policing in society and on the campus. Today’s protest was against the suspension of our friends. Let him suspend all the SFI activists. We’ll continue the protests till the suspension of the 10 students is revoked,” said Vysakh Mohan, SFI unit secretary.
When contacted, the principal said, “The suspension decision was taken by the college council and not me. I will soon hold a council meet and the issue will come up. The development council meet to be attended by the collector and the MLA will be held on Tuesday,” he said.
Meanwhile, The former students of Zamorin’s Guruvayoorappan College will hold a ‘Hug of Love’ protest expressing solidarity with the students of Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, who were suspended for holding a similar protest against moral policing. Several former students, including noted actor Joy Mathew, have come out in support of the protest and said they would participate in the event.
The organisers said the alumni of the college would come together on the college campus and hold the protest expressing their solidarity with the students of Maharaja’s. They will also invite the present students in the college to participate in the event.
“We have just started spreading the message and are yet to decide on the date of the protest. We are getting very good response and we expect to bring in the maximum number of people for it,” Mr M.U. Praveen, one of the organisers, told DC.