Congress-led opposition lawmakers ended their “indefinite” hunger strike over medical education fee hike yesterday as the Kerala Assembly adjourned for 11 days.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) was on a warpath after the government steeply increased fees in private medical colleges.
Three legislators - Hibi Eden, Shafi Parambil and Anoop Jacob - were hospitalised as their health worsened after seven days of fast on Tuesday, following which V T Balram and Roji M John took up the mission.
“There is no point in continuing the fast there since the House is not in session,” Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala told reporters later.
“We will now intensify our agitation outside (on the streets). We will decide on the future course of action at the UDF parliamentary meeting on October 17 (the day when the assembly session resumes after holidays).”
The opposition plans ‘janakiya sadas’ (people’s meetings) in all the 14 districts on October 15 and 16 “to expose the government’s stand in helping profiteers.”
The standoff appeared to end on Tuesday after the college administrations held a meeting with the opposition leaders and promised scholarships to financially disadvantaged students. However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan allegedly took a hostile position by not reaching an agreement with the managers of the colleges.
“He took an adamant stand that led to the failure of talks between the government and managers,” Chennithala said after forcing Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan to adjourn the House.
The UDF legislators who came to the assembly with banners attacked the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government for its alleged attitude against reviewing the fee hike despite the prolonged strike.
Rejecting the opposition charge that he was not keen to end the agitation, Vijayan told the assembly that government had its limitations on the issue and repeated that he was prepared to hold talks.
“The representatives of the managements also said that they are not ready to go back on the (earlier) agreement (with the government on the fee hike),” he said. “So there was no point in continuing talks.”
Former chief minister Oommen Chandy accused Vijayan of sabotaging ‘consensus talks’ by putting pressure on the managements not to make any change from the fees agreed upon.
“I don’t trust him,” added Chennithala, not hiding his disappointment with Vijayan who denied them a chance to end the agitation on a successful note. “With this, the poor students were denied the opportunity to get reduced fees.”
Meanwhile, the young activists of Congress, Muslim League and Bharatiya Janata Party took out separate protest marches to the Secretariat housing the chief minister’s office demanding a rollback on the fee hike.