JOIN USFormer diplomat and vice-chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council T P Sreenivasan was on Friday assaulted, reportedly by a group of SFI workers here. The incident happened near the venue of a global education meet.
Workers of the CPM-affiliated students’ organisation intercepted Sreenivasan and manhandled him; television footage showed one of the workers also slapping Sreenivasan, bringing him down on the road. The workers were at the venue for a protest against commercialisation of the higher education sector.
“Attack on me which many witnessed on tv was to get Global Education Meet cancelled at any cost. I was not badly hurt and meet is going well,” Sreenivasan, former ambassador to Austria and Slovenia, tweeted. Policemen present at the venue who failed to stop the workers’ assault have come under criticism. CPM Thiruvananthapuram district secretary Kadakampally Surendran offered an apology to Sreenivasan.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy called the assault a “shame for Kerala”. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala also condemned the attack. Sreenivasan who served in the Indian Foreign Service for 37 years is a former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.