Slapping TP Srinivasan doesn't seem like a major offense, no need to apologize: PM Arsho

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: PM Arsho has justified the incident of TP Sreenivasan getting slapped during the protest against private universities during the UDF regime. The SFI state secretary said that slapping TP Sreenivasan does not seem like a major crime and therefore there is no need to apologize. 'SFI did not go there thinking that they should assault him. They went to protest peacefully. Some students were trying to remove him from there, and in the meantime, some words that were disgusting to hear came out of his mouth. That is why the SFI leader slapped him,' Arsho said.

Arsho clarified that the assault was not a reaction to TP Sreenivasan's stance but a response to his obscene language. TP Sreenivasan was the chairman of the Higher Education Council in 2016. There was protest and assault against him when he came to a meeting in Kovalam to talk about the changes to be made in the higher education sector. The assault took place while the police were watching. The incident that happened nine years ago has come up again with the current Left government introducing the bill to recognize private universities.

Meanwhile, Arsho's response was that he was sceptical about the arrival of foreign universities and that big universities with recognition abroad would not come to a third-world country like India, and that he was concerned about universities without recognition. He denied that those who led the ragging at the Kottayam Government Nursing College had any connection with SFI. He said that efforts are being made to portray those involved in the atrocities committed on this campus, where nothing democratic is happening, as members of SFI.