Jishnu death: Kerala students vandalise Lakshmi Nair's academy in protest

 
The student unrest triggered by the death of Jishnu Pranoy, a B.Tech student from Thrissur, has broke opened the floodgates of repressed anger against college managements across the state. On Sunday, Kerala Law Academy (KLA) and its principal P Lakshmi Nair, who is also the celebrity host of a popular cookery show, bore the brunt of students' ire for allegedly harassing students and for not allowing students to air their protests. 

Activists of Students Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, went on the rampage on the Academy campus on Sunday and smashed the CCTV cameras and destroyed the doors. 

A joint front of students' organisations including the AISF, KSU and MSF has been on a joint stir in the academy for the past few days.  Nair closed the institution temporarily in an attempt to thwart the students'  protest. The ABVP and SFI were also protesting separately. 
 

There were allegations that the SFI was soft towards Nair, who is a hosting the cookery programme in Kairali Television, controlled by the CPM. The Sunday's attack on the academy is also considered an attempt by the students' wing of the CPM to counter the allegations.
 

The joint forum of the striking students had alleged that the principal denied permission to protest fearing that they would expose the management. Nair is always engrossed in hosting the cookery show and has little time to devote for the academy, the students alleged.  Instead of listening to the grievances, the principal harassed students who raised questions.  
 

The principal is using internal marks as a weapon to silence students. As many as 21 students have lost their academic year, thanks to Nair's selective harassment, the organisations alleged. 

Nair, however, refuted the allegations and said the students' organisations were harassing and threatening her. She also justified the closure of the institution after protests. The shooting of the cookery show is scheduled for weekends and holidays so that it won't affect the academy. 
 

Lakshmi Nair is the daughter of N Narayan Nair, who is one of the founders and the present director of the KLA. Joining the Academy as a guest lecturer in History in 1988, she became a permanent lecturer in 1994 and a professor in 2007, according to the KLA website. She completed her LLB and LLM from the academy and got PhD from the Center for Advanced Legal Studies and Research (CALSAR.)

• Lakshmi Nair
• celeb cookery show
• Kairali TV
• Jishnu Pranoy
• student unrest in Kerala
• B.tech student's death