SFI resurgence in Bengal student politics kindles CPM revival hope

At the forefront of these protests at various universities and in different parts of the state, especially Kolkata, has been the CPM’s student wing, Students Federation of India (SFI), which has been staunchly demanding justice for Anis’s family.

According to his family, Anis was killed on February 18 night after being allegedly thrown off the second floor of his residence by four unidentified persons in Howrah district’s Sarada Dakshin Khan Para village. His father Salem Khan has alleged that one of the accused was “in police uniform” and the others in civil volunteers’ uniform.

The Bengal government suspended three policemen for “negligence of duty”.They were on duty at Howrah’s Amta police station on February 18 night. The government also set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe Anis’s death, which has arrested two persons, homeguard Kashinath Bera and civic volunteer Pritam Bhattacharya, in the case.

Anis’s family has, however, stuck to its demand for a CBI probe into his killing, with his father maintaining they could not trust the state police which was allegedly responsible for his death.

A student leader of the Kolkata-based Aliah University, Anis had been with the ISF over the last two years, although he had earlier been associated with Chhatra Parishad, the Congress’s student wing, and various Left student bodies like the AISA (All India Students Association) and the AISF (All India Student Federation).

SFI members in a rally demanding justice for Anis Khan in Kolkata. (Express Photo: Partha Paul)

Backing the demands of the Anis family for a CBI inquiry and arrest of the accused, the SFI activists hit the streets on 19 February along with students of Alia University.

Since then, the SFI has been holding protests on the issue every day, on the streets as well as in university campuses across the state, forming human chains, putting up road blockades and even doing “gherao” of police stations.

The SFI leadership has made it clear that they will continue their campaign until the key culprits behind Anis’s death are arrested. An SFI state committee leader said, “Behind Anis’s killing was a big political conspiracy. We are demanding arrest of its main culprits. Police and administration are trying to dilute the case by arresting only a home guard and a civic volunteer.”

The CPIM has been closely tracking the SFI’s agitation in the Anis death case, hoping it would rejuvenate the rank and file of the parent party, which has now been relegated to the margins of Bengal politics.

After ruling Bengal for 34 years continuously, the CPM-led Left Front was ousted from power by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2011 Assembly elections. The CPM has been on a downward slide since then, failing to win a single seat in the 2021 Assembly polls, with its vote share plunging from over 30% in 2011 to 7% in 2021.

Since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in early 2020, the SFI has, however, been making its mark by undertaking various programmes to provide relief to affected people, constituting a group of “red volunteers” for the purpose.

According to CPM sources, the number of the SFI’s red volunteers increased even after the party’s disastrous peformance in the 2021 polls, rising from about 5,000 to 30,000 in Kolkata and from about 40,000 to 1.20 lakh in Bengal in June last year.

“These red volunteers worked relentlessly during the Covid period, providing oxygen cylinders, masks, oximeters, food, medicines and hand sanitisers etc.

to affected people, shifting patients to hospitals. Many of them got infected themselves but did not stop their relief work,” said an SFI leader.

After taking over the reins of Bengal in 2011, the TMC government gradually stopped student union elections in colleges, which blocked the entry of new activists into the SFI and other Left student bodies. The emergence of red volunteers, however, restarted the influx of fresh members and new leaders into the SFI and, by extension, the CPM.

Acknowledging the work of these young SFI members during the Covid waves, the CPM fielded many of them as its candidates in the recent state civic polls.

Although the TMC swept all four municipal corporations in the February 12 civic polls with 61% votes, the Left Front pushed the BJP to the third position in terms of vote share, garnering 16.75% as against the principal Opposition BJP’s 14.5 per cent votes.

A senior CPM leader said, “Our aim was to bring new and young faces to the fore, continuing to give them space and tickets in various recent elections. The Anis Khan issue may further galvanise the SFI and speed up this process.”

A senior CPM leader said, “Our party’s student wing has always provided us with our future leaders. From Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Biman Bose, Anil Biswas, and Subhash Chakraborty to current leaders like Md. Salim, Sujan Chakraborty, and Samik Lahiri – all of them have come from students movement.”

He also said, “The Anis Khan case gave Left organisations a key opportunity to fight against TMC, with BJP being absent from it. That also helped SFI.”

However, TMC’s student wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, claimed that the Anis case would not give fillip to the SFI, with its state chief Trinankur Bhattacharya saying, “They don’t have any organisation in colleges and universities. They are trying to get mileage through Anis’s death, but we don’t think this will benefit them.”