Kerala University Annual Youth Festival:  A massive controversy erupted at the Kerala University after the Communist Party of India-Marxist's Students Federation of India-led students union named the annual youth festival as ‘Intifada’. Followed by a huge protest by the ABVP students, the Vice Chancellor of the Kerala University asked the student union to drop the proposed name. 

‘Intifada’ is an Arabic word which is used by  Palestinians to describe their uprising against Israel. The Kerala University will be organising the annual cultural festival from March 7-11 at Palayam. 

VC Asks Students To Drop Name 

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Kerala  Dr. Mohanan Kunnummal has directed the students’ union to drop the name and remove it from all promotional materials including posters and social media handles.

The VC highlighted that the word ‘Intifada’ has a direct link with the Palestine-Israel issue, adding that the same can have an implication of national foreign policy. 

The Vice Chancellor said that efforts must be made to not postpone or cancel the annual festival as all the arrangements have been made. “Hence it is necessary that the name given to the Youth Festival must b changed,” said the VC. 

ABVP Leads Protest  

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad said that naming the annual youth festival as ‘Intifada’ was an attempt by the SFI to “legitimise an extremist-terrorist dictionary”. Accusing SFI of misleading students, ABVP condemned the use of words like ‘Intifada’. 

“SFI is making efforts to legitimise the extremist and terror terminologies as new-normal. ABVP demands the renaming and recreation of the logo of the Kerala University Youth Festival,” the ABVP said in a statement. 

The ABVP said that Kerala is a land of Adi Guru Shankaracharya and must be used for embracing artistic performance. “Kerala is the land of Adi Guru Shankaracharya and Sri Narayan Guru, who devoted their sacred life with the purpose of preserving and strengthening national unity and integrity, by spreading the ancient Bharatiya culture of knowledge, welfare of humankind,” the statement said. 

“ABVP has a strong opinion that this is an Art and Cultural festival embracing artistic performance and talents of the students by elevating the prosperous culture of Kerala, whereas, SFI is misleading students, creating fear and violence in the young minds with such extreme terminologies,” the ABVP said.