MSF dismisses SFI’s allegations over students’ union polls

Muslim Students Federation (MSF) State president P.K. Navas has dismissed allegations levelled by Students Federation of India (SFI) State secretary P.S. Sanjeev and SFI former State secretary P.M. Arsho related to the victory of the candidates of the MSF and its ally, the Kerala Students Union (KSU), in the recently held elections to the students’ union of the University of Calicut and Kannur University.

Mr. Navas told the media here on Sunday (August 17) that the SFI leaders’ claim that the MSF had managed to win these polls with the help of university union councillors (UUC) “elected from Arabic colleges” was untrue. He said that the MSF has UUCs and union functionaries in government and aided colleges in Kannur, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad districts on its own and in alliance with the KSU. Mr. Navas also criticised the bid to portray Arabic colleges with alleged racial overtones, pointing out that they had been affiliated with the University of Calicut and were run according to the university laws and government guidelines.

About the SFI leaders’ claim that the MSF was becoming too close to the student organisations of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the banned Popular Front of India, Mr. Navas showed photographs and videos of SFI leaders joining hands with the same groups in college union polls in the recent past. He also alleged that a candidate of the Campus Front of India, the PFI’s students’ wing, got elected as UUC from a college in Malappuram some years ago with the help of the SFI.